The Implant
by azurefang
Summary: This MPREG one-shot story takes place after the dinner attended by Klaus, Elijah, Damon and Stefan. It involves Dr. Meredith Fell, Alaric's new love interest. Idea prompted by BooksvsFics, and then I had fun with it. :-
1. Chapter 1

THE IMPLANT

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as Kaitlyn, are mine.

AN - This MPREG one-shot story takes place after the dinner attended by Klaus, Elijah, Damon and Stefan. It involves Dr. Meredith Fell, Alaric's new love interest. In this case, Stefan didn't go to the cave where Bonnie and her mother were unconscious with an opened mystery coffin. A review by BOOKSvsFICS prompted this idea, and I ran with it.

KAITLYN

Young Kaitlyn Fell used caution as she drove the huge motor home around a curve in the road. This large vehicle was really intimidating compared to driving the car she was used to. It was only her second time behind the wheel of the RV, and that first time, the drive had been short. It was bad enough that she felt nervous about driving the big rig, but tonight she was having to drive it on a dark, winding road lit only by the headlights.

"Where are you now?" came Meredith Fell's impatient voice over the cell phone ear piece Kaitlyn was wearing.

"I just went past the intersection of Dusty Lane." She uncurled the white-knuckled fingers of her right hand and took her hand off the wheel long enough to brush a long lock of dark brown hair back from her face.

"Well, hurry it up. I've got him. We're near the side of the road a bit south of there. Joe will be beside the road looking for you."

"I'm coming," Kaitlyn said. She shook her head a bit, worried and nervous. Why was she allowing Meredith to get her involved in this escapade? Okay, she did know the answer to that. Cousin Meredith had paid for her education as a registered nurse and then as an anesthesia nurse. And she was family. She was overpowering when it came to talking Kaitlyn into doing things she wouldn't otherwise do. What Meredith wanted, she usually got.

Kaitlyn didn't know why they were doing this tonight. Meredith had just spent hours doing emergency surgery on a patient of hers. She must be weary. She shouldn't be undertaking this project. But Meredith had had the vampire followed by Joe and Orin for several days and tonight the opportunity had presented itself. Surely, there would have been other opportunities coming up.

"I should be out with my friends," she whispered to herself as well as addressing the RV. She worked during the day at the local hospital and often spent evenings out with co-workers. "But no, I'm out here this evening, wrestling you around. And I'm getting ready to violate the rights of some person. Hell, not even a regular person! Some vampire! Why a vampire, I ask you? This has got to be dangerous, not to mention illegal."

"I can't hear you. What'd you say?" Meredith asked in her ear.

"I was just talking to this monster vehicle," Kaitlyn said, glad the older woman hadn't heard her words.

The vehicle's headlights spotlighted Joe standing on the grassy shoulder of the road, so she eased the RV mostly off the pavement onto the grass. Putting it in "park," she turned on the emergency flashers, and then she moved over, opened the door and let down the steps.

In a moment, with no other vehicles in sight, Meredith and big Orin came out of the dark woods, carrying between them a body. As they managed to get it up the stairs and into the RV, Kaitlyn could see it was a male, a young guy. They laid him on the floor and brushed bits of dirt and dried leaves from him. Shot with vervain, he had collapsed there in the woods.

"Get going, Kaitlyn. You know where to go," Meredith ordered.

The younger woman hurried back to the driver's seat and soon had the vehicle easing on down the winding road. She felt very aware of the fact that there was an unconscious vampire in the RV with her. A real undead blood-sucking neck biter. As far as she knew, she had never been close to one, although she knew this little town of Mystic Falls was rumored to have them. Of course, she knew it wasn't just a rumor. It was a fact and the Fell family, one of the town's founding families, knew the truth. The family's shame was that cousin Logan Fell, deceased news reporter, had died a murdering vampire.

She finally pulled into the campground that Meredith had chosen, and she maneuvered the big rig into the site already paid for. In fact, Joe's car was parked there, also. With a nervous sigh, she left the driver's seat and she and Joe got out to connect the RV to the electricity hookup at the site.

Once inside again, they made their way toward the back area. Lights now lit the vehicle's interior. Orin and Meredith were now in what was the bedroom, which took up the whole back end of the vehicle. There was no bed there, however. The room, with its windows covered, was now a small operating room.

The two men, Orin the big guy and Joe the smallish one, then carried the limp body to the back room. They proceeded to remove the young vampire's button-down shirt, which, oddly, had a scorched cuff on the left sleeve. There was no undershirt.

As a nurse, Kaitlyn found it disturbing to see how they handled him, not even supporting his head, which flopped forward or backward as they manhandled him. They hefted him onto the operating table, where his arms hung over the sides of the table until supporting armboards were put in place.

"Start the I.V." Meredith ordered Kaitlyn. Meredith herself was fooling with a set of instruments and other equipment.

Kaitlyn pulled the I.V. pole over near the right side of the table. Hanging from the pole was a clear plastic bag of fluid, already containing the botanical drug vervain. Kaitlyn swabbed the arm near the elbow with alcohol and prepared to stick one of the slightly bulging veins. Her hands were shaking.

"Hurry up! We don't want him to wake up," Meredith fussed.

This dire warning only made Kaitlyn's hands shake more. Stick the vampire's arm, she urged herself. He's out cold. He won't feel it. He won't suddenly rear up and sink fangs into my throat! Hurry, or he might. Oh, God, how'd I get into this mess?

She punched the sharp needle through his skin and it went right into the vein she was aiming for. With relief, she taped it in place and adjusted the drip rate of the medicated fluid. She noted the one ring he had on his right hand, but she made no move to remove it. Normally, jewelry was removed prior to surgery. Well, this case was not "normal." There was no wrist watch on either arm.

"How fast should it be going?" she asked her cousin, who told her. She adjusted the drip, wondering how the medication was going to circulate in his body when his heart wasn't beating. She didn't dare ask Meredith. He already had vervain in his body. Would this additional amount overdose him? Can a vampire be overdosed? With a nervous sigh, she put a surgical mask over her nose and mouth as the others were doing.

The sudden ringing of a phone made all of them jump a little. It was the patient's cell phone in a pocket of his jeans. No one made a move to answer it or turn it off. After a brief moment, everyone went back to the job at hand.

There was no anesthesia machine in the room, just a small table for Kaitlyn to use if she wanted This seemed totally weird to her. She had nothing to give the patient except the I.V. medication and an extra syringe of the drug. She had nothing to monitor his condition with. No paper on which to record his vital signs.

"It feels wrong not to have ECG leads on his chest or an oximeter to put on his finger. No blood pressure cuff. No stethoscope to listen to his heart!" she told Meredith.

"You _don't need_ them, Kaitlyn. Use your head. His heart isn't beating and he isn't breathing," Meredith fussed. She was scrubbing the fellow's abdominal skin with a clear liquid germ killer.

Kaitlyn sat down on the provided chair at the head of the table, the traditional place for an anesthesia person during most surgeries. She looked down the length of the young man's body. He was lean and muscled from his shoulders to the beltline of his low-rider jeans. She glimpsed a bit of the white underwear.

Her eyes came back to his chest, which had no breathing movement. He had a few hairs around his nipples and some more between his navel and his belt, but otherwise his torso was mainly free of hair. She had to assume vampires had the usual pubic hair. With his arms out on the boards, she could see his armpit hair. Did he use an anti-deodorant? He seemed to have no body scent at all. All in all, it was weird. If she hadn't known that Meredith planned to catch a vampire, she would have thought, by the look of him, that he was a regular human.

Out of habit, she put her hand under his chin and lifted it a bit, tilting his head back a small amount. If the patient were human, this would make his breathing easier. Then, she reminded herself that he wasn't breathing, anyway. She glanced down his body again and watched Meredith and Joe, both now wearing sterile gowns and gloves, lay sterile surgical drapes onto the patient, exposing just his abdomen. Orin moved around the room as the "circulator," doing other necessary things.

Kaitlyn's attention came back to her patient. Under her hand she could feel his flesh, not warm and not cold. Just cool. He had a nice, unblemished complexion. There was a smudge of dirt on his left cheek and the tip of his nose; she gently wiped it off. She could just feel the beard stubble under his skin. He had shaved recently, this evening, probably. She couldn't remember ever seeing an illustration of a vampire with a beard.

His lips were light pink, not blue as would be expected if someone hadn't been breathing for some time. She carefully lifted his upper lip and looked at his teeth. They were clean, white and even. His eyeteeth looked a bit longer than the other teeth, but they certainly were not fangs. Where did the fangs come from? Did the eyeteeth change?

She did notice the faint scent of wine. And asparagus? Had he just eaten a dinner of real food, not blood? Did vampires eat real food? There was so much she didn't know. Didn't want to know.

"What's his name?" she asked her cousin.

"What?" Meredith asked, not looking up from what she was doing with Joe's assistance.

"What's his name?" Kaitlyn asked again. She really wanted to have a name for him.

"Stefan Salvatore," Meredith muttered.

Stefan, Kaitlyn thought. That's nice. She looked at his lightish brown hair, combed just so, short and upswept in a style common these days for guys. There were a couple of bits of dried leaves, which she picked off. He had narrow sideburns in front of his ears, dark eyebrows and dark lashes. There was a little brown mole on the right side of his jaw. She had also noticed a tattoo on his right shoulder. A rose? Who knew vampires got tattoos!

She carefully lifted one of his eyelids. Hello, Stefan, she silently said, looking at his eye. The dark pupil was really dilated. What little she could see of the iris looked dark green. Was he aware? What if he was aware, but totally paralyzed? That was an anesthesia nightmare. Paralyzed but awake during surgery and suffering a lot of pain. Was it possible the poor guy was really awake?

She had nothing to tell by. No monitors. In a way he looked really dead with no heartheat, no respirations, pupils fixed and dilated. But she knew Meredith had dealt with vampires and she claimed this one was not really dead. Or at least he could be revived and would be just fine. According to know-it-all Meredith.

Kaitlyn closed the staring eye and turned her own eyes to the operation. She knew that Meredith was putting certain things into the young man's abdomen.

"I don't really understand why you're doing this," she ventured to say. "I mean, I know you've been working for several years on abdominal pregnancies. And I know you said you've made some discoveries, but why would you choose to put an embryo in a male and why a _vampire_?"

"I've already done successful trials on human females who had had hysterectomies. Got several healthy babies and the mothers didn't die of complications. Of course, I did have some fatalities, but that's to be expected," Meredith said in an even tone, not interrupting her work. "I'm pretty sure I've worked out how to have a male carry an embryo and have it develop into a fetus, but for reasons I'm not going to explain, I think a male vampire has a good chance of doing it.

"Stefan is a young, healthy male who won't die of hemorrhage. Besides implanting the embryo, I'm putting in small reservoirs of drugs that will protect the embryo from his male hormones and his vampire immune system. The reservoirs' pumps will deliver the drugs over many months. I'm putting them deep so he won't know they're there."

"Won't he wonder about the various incisions? Oh, forget that. You told me he would heal quickly. But what about the scars? What about soreness?"

"He won't have any scars. He should heal in minutes, leaving no scars. Maybe a tiny amount of temporary bruising. We're going to distract him from abdominal soreness, if there even will be any," Meredith assured her confidently. "We're going to put him back in some woods to let him recover. He'll know something happened, but he won't be able to figure out what. I'm planning a distraction."

"What if an animal attacks him while he's unconscious?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Animals don't seem to feed on vampires."

Kaitlyn didn't ask anymore questions. She didn't understand her cousin. The woman was brilliant. She'd finished medical school at a young age and had trained to be an obstetrician/gynecologist. She had then concentrated on infertility problems.

After a few years in practice she had added the specialty of pathology and she was presently a medical examiner for Mystic Falls and the county. Her work load with this was light, which was good, because she had office hours and did surgery at two different hospitals.

In secret, she was experimenting with this abdominal pregnancy thing. She would lose her license and end up in prison if anyone found out _some_ of what she had done. In fact, Kaitlyn knew the same could happen to her with connection to this case. It was frightening.

Kaitlyn suspected that Meredith held something incriminating over the heads of Orin and Joe. Orin Fell Smith was a cousin and Joe, real name Jose Pinto, was an illegal immigrant. In addition, Meredith paid them well for their loyalty and discretion. She was paying Kaitlyn well, for that matter.

Kaitlyn wondered what would happen _if_ this procedure was successful. It was always possible the tiny embryo would not survive. But if it did, the young vampire eventually would have to realize that he had a "tumor" growing in his abdomen, one that moved. What would he do? Would he spoil Meredith's experiment by having the "tumor" removed? Or would he succumb to the wonder of carrying a baby and protect it?

While all these thoughts were running through her mind, she had both hands on his face, one on each side. Almost automatically, her thumbs were gently stroking his soft, smooth cheeks. A couple of times she used one hand to brush across his forehead and to run fingers along his eyebrows. Her finger traced the neat, straight nose. He was such a good-looking guy it was a shame he was a vampire. She wanted to talk to the "sleeping" young man, but she knew Meredith would ridicule that, so she kept her mouth shut.

After a while, Meredith said, "Well, I think that does it. I'll keep an eye on him as best I can during the months to come. Hopefully, he won't decide to leave Mystic Falls, but I've inserted this nice little tracking device along with everything else, so I should be able to follow him." She peeled the surgical drapes from the young man's body and cleaned off any blood. To the younger woman she said, "Kaitlyn, give him a bolus of vervain intravenously and then remove the I.V."

Kaitlyn had a syringe of the drug and she now injected it into Stefan via the intravenous line. Once the drug was in, she removed the needle from his vein. She watched the small puncture wound heal right before her eyes. Boy, if only regular people could heal like that!

"Okay," Meredith said, removing her gown and gloves. "Get him dressed, gentlemen."

Kaitlyn held onto his head, supporting it this time, not letting it flop around as it had when the men had removed his shirt. She watched them properly button the shirt front, but now they had to tuck it into his pants. Before, they had pulled it free. They decided not to just stuff it back under his belt. Stefan would be suspicious if they did that. Joe undid the belt buckle and zipper.

Kaitlyn found herself looking at the front of the underwear, but it was impossible to really tell what his private parts looked like. She wondered if they were just the same as when he was human. She knew vampires sucked blood from people, but were they also capable of having sex with people? She felt so ignorant where the vampires were concerned. While Meredith had studied them, Kaitlyn had deliberately avoided learning about them.

Orin easily lifted Stefan from the table by putting his big arms around the young man's chest and holding him up. Joe worked at pulling the shirttails down, and then the pants up. He zipped them up and buckled the belt. Then they put him back on the table.

"Kaitlyn, time to drive this rig. We're going to put him somewhere different from where we picked him up," Meredith ordered. "I'll direct you."

"We gotta disconnect the electric," Joe reminded her. He went outside to do that while Kaitlyn got into the driver's seat. Some of the interior lights stayed on using battery power. When the vehicle was ready, Kaitlyn slowly drove the RV forward from their pull-through camp site and then made her way toward the campground exit. Joe followed in his car.

Some minutes later, she pulled over to the side of the road where Meredith directed her. She then watched as Orin and Joe carried Stefan down the steps. Meredith went with them carrying a canvas tote bag and a flashlight. They disappeared into the nearby woods.

"Goodbye, Stefan," Kaitlyn said in a whisper. "I hope all goes well for you." She wondered what he was like awake. If he had a warm smile, a sense of humor. Or was he nasty and evil? Perhaps she would see him in town some day.

Meredith and the men were not gone long. When they returned, Kaitlyn drove the big vehicle back to the storage yard where it was kept and where her own car waited. Joe again followed in his car. All four of them collected the many intruments and cleaned up the operating room. Finally, they were ready to leave. Kaitlyn's active part in the venture was over. Her memory of it would last a long time.

STEFAN

The first thing he was aware of was the hoot of an owl not far away. Concentrating on his sense of hearing, he could not hear the heartbeat or respirations of anything bigger than a rabbit. He was alone. The next thing was the smell of dirt and dry leaves. He was lying face down on the ground. The third thing was the odor of alcohol, whiskey, to be exact. In fact, he could taste it on his tongue. What was happening? Where was he?

He couldn't move and he knew why. Vervain. Someone had injected him with the stuff. He hadn't been paying any attention to possible attack. He'd been walking around in the woods, thinking and brooding, after Damon had walked away from him. After Damon had ascertained that he, too, loved Elena. After both of them had left Klaus to deal with his siblings. For Stefan it seemed like his life was just one problem after another right now. And here he was recovering from being shot with vervain.

He opened his eyes and found that his head was turned to his right. Light from an almost-full moon shown on him and lit the area. Lots of trees still laden with Fall leaves. Was it the woods were he and Damon had been walking, the one between his own home and the Mikaelson house?

His right hand was about a foot from his face and under the hand was a whiskey bottle. He could see part of the label; a brand of scotch. He normally didn't drink scotch, preferring bourbon. He sure as hell hadn't bought this bottle. So someone had put it in his hand. Despite the fact that he could taste the stuff, he didn't feel like he had drunk much of it, if any.

The fourth thing he became aware of was abdominal discomfort. Damn, he was lying on something hard, a rock or something. He wanted to move, but he couldn't yet. Aside from the uncomfortable pressure of the thing under his belly, he felt no other injuries. He knew his shirt was damp and cold underneath him, though.

As he lay there with many thoughts and questions running through his head, he became aware of another scent, a subtle one. He concentrated on it. He had smelled it before. Where? It wasn't exactly perfume. It was more like the scent of shampoo or soap or skin lotion. That was it! Skin lotion. Elena had used it a few times, but it wasn't her favorite. Elena wouldn't leave him lying in the woods, loaded with vervain.

Some other woman had touched him. He was sure the scent was on his face, more specifically near his nose and mouth. What woman had had her hands on his face while he was out? Had she kissed him? He certainly hadn't bitten her. There was no taste of blood in his mouth. They hadn't had sex, he knew. He couldn't get it up when he was vervained, not until the drug totally wore off.

Was that the reason for the whiskey in his mouth and on his shirt? To try to hide the scent of someone who had touched him? Or to convince him that he was drunk and had passed out in the woods?

He wondered how long he had been out. He was sure the moon had been low before and now it was beyond overhead. Had he been unconscious for two or three hours? Damn! It would have taken more than one shot of vervain to keep him out that long. Why had she or they done it? He wished he knew.

Finally, the vervain began to wear off and he could move. The first thing he did was roll over onto his side and look to see what was under him. It turned out to be three things, two stones about the size of his fist and a piece of broken tree branch lying on the ground. Whoever had dumped him here had not bothered to check the ground first and didn't care what he was lying on.

The aroma of the scotch increased and he realized the dampness of his shirt was spilled whiskey. He hadn't done it, he was sure. What kind of game was someone playing with him?

Slowly, he sat up and looked around. The leaves on the ground were disturbed by at least a couple of people moving around. He wasn't surprised by that. Someone had to drag or carry him here. Seeing no drag marks, he assumed he had been carried.

He looked at his clothes. They looked and felt normal, so he decided that he had not been undressed and then dressed. That was a relief. Except for his abdomen, no other body parts were sore. That too was a relief.

He reached into a back pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He had missed two calls and one text message. He looked at the time and saw that he was right. He's been out cold for a little over three hours. He speed-dialed a number, returning Damon's call.

"Where the hell are you?" Damon demanded, having noted the caller I.D.

"I'm not sure," Stefan said, looking around.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm in some woods, but I don't know what woods. Someone vervained me over three hours ago and I just woke up. I can't hear any traffic noise or see any lights. Maybe I'm not far from the house or maybe I'm miles away. I just don't know."

He looked up through the leaves of the trees and could see stars. If he could find a clear place he could find the direction "north," but then what?

"Have you got GPS on that phone?" Damon asked.

"No, I got rid of the phone that had it. Look, I'm going to start walking. I can't be far from somewhere. Someone had to carry me to where I am. Stay on the phone with me, okay."

"Yeah. Go for a walk, little brother."

Stefan found where his handlers had walked and he followed. His position turned out to be in a small hollow. When he climbed out of it, he was able to spot a distant light, a house or a street light. He told this to Damon. In fact, as he walked toward the light, he saw the headlights of a vehicle move by. There had to be a road there and it was close. Walking on, he came to the road, but he still didn't know where he was.

"I'm on the road. I can see lighted clouds in one area. It has to be from a town. It could be Mystic Falls," he told Damon. "There's a house close to here. I'm going over there and see if anyone's home and ask where the hell I am."

From the wary man in the farmhouse, Stefan learned that he was on one of the country roads south of Mystic Falls. He was just far enough away from home to be in a very rural area.

"I'll come get you," Damon said.

On the drive home, Stefan related what he knew. He was frustrated and concerned because he didn't know what had happened while he was unconscious. Damon asked questions, but for the most part, Stefan didn't know the answers.

Damon told him that Bonnie and her mother had opened the mystery coffin, but they had been knocked out when it opened explosively and didn't see who or what was in it. Now, it was empty. What had been unleashed?

In addition, Elena had called, very upset. Hours ago, Alaric had been critically stabbed at her house. Because of his ring, he had survived. For a couple of reasons, Meredith Fell was the suspect.

"We'll come back in the morning and look for tracks of a vehicle and from shoes," Damon said, speaking again of Stefan's mystery. "Maybe we can at least tell how many were involved when they put you there."

At home, Stefan undressed to take a shower. He stood in front of his full-length mirror and studied his body. He had small, faint bruises on his abdomen. After some consideration, he thought a couple of them didn't match up with where the rocks and piece of branch had been pressing against him. Odd. He picked up his phone and called Damon, rather than just yell and hope he heard. Besides, he didn't want to alarm Damon who might think he was in trouble. He asked him to come up to his room to see something.

In a minute, Damon walked into the room and saw his nude brother standing in front of the mirror.

"You called me up here to see you buck-naked? Or am I supposed to be in awe of your buff body? What do you want?" Damon asked, his tone snarky.

"What I want you to see are these bruises," Stefan said.

Damon squinted at the reflection of his brother's abdomen in the mirror.

"The light is lousy here. Lie down on the bed if you want me to see whatever," Damon grumbled.

Stefan lay flat on his back on the bed. The reading lamp beside the bed offered better light. "Count how many bruises you see. Even the faint ones."

Damon leaned his hands on the bed and scrutinized the skin of his brother's muscled belly. All the bruises were faint. He counted and said a number.

"That's more than there should be just from me lying on two rocks and the piece of wood. What made the other ones?"

"Probably wounds, but the locations don't mean a thing to me. Hold still. Don't get up yet," Damon said. He leaned down closer and sniffed.

"What the hell, Damon! Don't bite me!" Stefan said, alarmed.

"I'm not going to bite," Damon growled. "I'm smelling something. It smells like alcohol."

"It's scotch," Stefan reminded him.

"No, it's something else. I'd say someone wounded you and then cleaned you up. Or you were wounded and some one else cleaned you up."

"That's weird. I don't have any blood on my clothes. If what you say is true, then they undressed me and then took care dressing me again. Damn," Stefan said, frowning.

"Yeah, it's weird. Hold still," Damon said, leaning closer.

Stefan watched his brother close his eyes and sniff all over the abdominal skin, like a dog or cat sniffing at an unfamiliar scent on a shoe or pants leg. To his surprise, Damon then sniffed his chest. Opening his eyes, the older brother lifted each of Stefan's arms and sniffed.

"Several humans have had their hands on you. At least one woman and maybe two men," Damon said, straightening up.

"Okay, come smell my face. Tell me what you smell." He held his breath so it didn't add to the smell. He could still taste the scotch, which he now suspected someone had put in his mouth. And most of his sense of smell was overpowered by the whisky around his mouth.

Damon leaned on the bed close to Stefan's shoulder and bent down close, sniffing Stefan's face from his jaw to his cheeks to his forehead.

"You've certainly been with a woman. Didn't Elena use something that smelled like that?" Damon asked, still sniffing.

"She did. I remembered that. Some kind of hand lotion. But she doesn't use it now," Stefan said, feeling uncomfortable with his brother so closely sniffing him.

"Hm. Interesting," Damon said, still sniffing the faint scent, barely hidden by the alcohol of the scotch. Since Damon's mouth was so close to his brother's, and out of a warped sense of humor, he suddenly touched his lips to Stefan's, lightly brushing them. Then he stood up, grinning widely.

"Eww! Did you just kiss me?" Stefan said, wiping a hand across his mouth and grimacing.

"Hell, I can't get that close to a mouth and not kiss it," Damon said, laughing.

"I'm your brother! And we aren't the Mikaelson clan." Stefan sat up and swung his legs over the other side of the bed away from Damon.

"Oh? A little incest going on there?"

"I suspect. Anyway, you confirmed what I thought. I have more bruises than I should and some woman had her hands on my face," Stefan said, heading toward the bathroom and a hot shower.

"Let me see if there's any different scent on your clothes," Damon said. He went to the shirt, jeans and underwear strewn on the floor and picked up the shirt. After a quick sniff of the back and sleeves, he said, "Same two guys." After picking up the jeans and smelling from the knees to the cuffs, he said, "Hm. Another woman helped carry you. Different from the one at your head."

"So, at least four people. They vervained me, took me somewhere, stripped me. Put bruises on my belly, dressed me and put me in the woods, drenched in scotch and lying on rocks," Stefan said, having paused at the bathroom door.

"Yup," Damon agreed, nodding and rolling his eyes.

"Why? Why? Why?" Stefan muttered.

"After you wash off that whiskey, take a smell of your clothes. Maybe one of us will run into someone we can match the scent to."

"Hm. I will," Stefan said.

Damon and Stefan stared at each other for a long moment. They were both wondering the same thing. Any trace of the bruises would be gone in a few hours, but someone had tried to keep Stefan from noticing the extra bruises and the other alcohol smell. They hadn't thought of the touches to his skin beyond his abdomen or the scent on his clothes, except for the front of his shirt. No one had washed his face.

With a shrug, Damon left the room and Stefan went into the bathroom for a nice hot shower and scrub-down. He felt violated, even though he had no idea what had been done to him.

.

The next morning they went to the place where Stefan had awoken. When they examined the spot closely, they found that the two stones didn't match any others in the woodsy hollow and the broken piece of tree branch didn't match the trees growing in the area. These items had been brought there and placed under him. Why? To divert attention from the earlier bruises?

They checked from there to the road. They saw the footprints of at least three people, one a man with large feet. They also saw the tire marks of a large vehicle, a truck or bus. Beyond that, they didn't learn anything.

As Damon drove them home he said, "Look, unless something else happens or you remember something, we might as well let this go. If you feel that you haven't been hurt physically."

"I feel perfectly all right," Stefan said with a shrug. "The little bruises and soreness are gone. Wondering what happened bothers me, but what can I do about it? I don't have a clue pointing toward anyone."

"All right. It's over and done with. And besides, I'm damned concerned about that doctor our friend Alaric is sort of dating. I just don't trust Meredith Fell. I want to find out what's going on with her. She could be a murderer. It could have been her that stabbed him yesterday."

"I hope you're wrong," Stefan said. "Poor Rick has had rotten luck with the women he's fallen for." Also, he wondered about Klaus and his awakened siblings. He and Damon speculated about what happened at Klaus' house after the two of them had left. And who had been in the mystery coffin?

With these thoughts in mind, Stefan mostly forgot about the strange episode that had happened to him in the woods.

A.N This story is not likely to have a second chapter, at least not for several months when Stefan might notice something. Maybe then. Fact: An abdominal pregnancy occurs when the fertilized egg ends up in a woman's abdomen instead of in the uterus. Such pregnancies are moderately rare and they can be dangerous for the mother and the baby. Current, men do NOT get pregnant. But we have imaginations.

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	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me.

AN Thank you for the Reviews, Alerts and Favorites. That is so encouraging to me. I realized when I was writing Chapter 2 that Stefan should not have known that Klaus' last name was Mikaelson, which I wrote in Chapter 1. Oh, well. Forgive me.

THE HEARTBEAT

With determination, Stefan had stopped biting people and was off human blood. He was often hungry for that exquisite elixir, but he ignored it. He had gone back to animal blood. It was about six weeks after the incident in the woods and he still felt he had to be very alert when he hunted. Was someone lurking in the woods waiting to get him with vervain again?

On this night, when he came home from a hunt in the woods, he took a shower and then sat on his bed against the headboard. He wrote in his journal as he often did. Then he sat thinking with his eyes closed after making a notation about the recent days. He was undecided about what else to write. His heart was not beating and he was not breathing. He was very relaxed. It was one of those times when the house was very quiet and there was no wind whistling under the eaves.

A sound caught his attention. He had heard it earlier, but hadn't really homed in on it. There was the rapid tick of a tiny heart, such as that of a bird or mouse. He listened, turning his head one way and another. It was likely a mouse. The house was old and wooden and from time to time they had to set traps to catch the little critters. He didn't hear a mouse scampering around or, worse yet, gnawing on something. Then, he did hear skittering in the wall. A mouse, all right. When he went to bed, he still heard the heartbeat and he knew the rodent was still in the wall.

In the morning he woke to the sound of the kitchen television. Damon was up and making breakfast. The great scent of coffee reached all the way up to Stefan's third floor room. He dressed and went down the back stairs.

Damon was getting ready to cook scrambled eggs and he added two more when Stefan asked him to. In another pan some sausage sizzled and Damon added to that too. Soon they were sitting down and eating, although Stefan didn't have a glass of blood as Damon did.

His appetite had increased. Even Damon commented on it as Stefan consumed the scrambled eggs, grits, sausage and toast.

"If you weren't a vampire, you'd be getting fat eating like you do these days," Damon said. His own breakfast was no less, but he had always enjoyed eating and he didn't gain weight.

"I'm hungry. And I don't drink the amount of blood I used to."

"You don't drink blood at all. Well, except the bunny blood, I assume."

"Make up your mind, Damon. You didn't like it if I had girls over to feed on, but you don't like it if I don't."

"I'm just concerned that you'll go back to being weak from lack of decent feeding."

"I wasn't all that weak on animal blood before, you know," Stefan insisted as he swallowed coffee. "By the way, I keep hearing mice in the walls. Maybe we need to set traps again."

"I heard one the other night," Damon agreed, nodding.

A while later, Damon and Stefan were at Elena's when she brought in an envelope shoved under the front door.

"Well, what do you know. I'm invited to a housewarming at the Mikaelsons'."

"Who the hell are the Mikaelsons?" Stefan asked.

"I'm surprised you don't know. It's Klaus' family. You know, the sons of Mikael."

"Except for Klaus, of course," Stefan said with a smirk. "I guess I have heard the name mentioned. I'm surprised Rebekah didn't use it when she registered at school."

"She used Michaud, didn't she?"

"Which is another name for Mikael."

During the next four days, or evenings, Stefan thought he heard the little heartbeat several times. Perhaps the mouse had made a nest in the wall. Most of the time there was too much noise around him to hear it, be it music, a radio or television, talking, wind outside his window. At school, there was way too much noise. He didn't consider that the tiny noise was with him always.

On Saturday, Stefan and Damon went to the gala housewarming at Klaus' house. The problem was that Klaus' mother Esther had requested a private chat with Elena. Damon especially did not want her to talk to the older woman, a powerful witch. In the end, things did not go as either Damon or Elena wanted. Stefan didn't care as strongly. To keep Damon from detaining her, Elena asked Stefan to distract his brother. Which he did by breaking his neck and rendering him unconscious. Needless to say, Damon was furious at Stefan and Elena for that. He later took Rebekah home to his bed out of spite. She was happy to go with him.

When Stefan went home, he was aware that Damon had Rebekah in his room. He didn't really care. He knew his brother was angry with him and with Elena for tricking him. Perhaps Elena would reject Damon and he, Stefan, would have a better chance of winning her trust and love again.

Sunday morning Elena stopped by the house to talk to Damon. She found Rebekah in bed with him, and she left the room feeling anger, disgust and disappointment.

Stefan was up early at dawn and he went out hunting in the nearby woods for the various animals that roamed and fed at that time of day. A steady breeze rustled the leaves still on the trees and those on the ground. He got a deer, from which he fed, but he didn't harm the animal. He then walked back to the house. He saw Elena's car driving away. He wondered if she and Damon had had a civil chat.

Inside the kitchen, he made himself coffee and toast, and then took them out to the back patio where he sat enjoying the morning. It was Fall, but not cold, although the morning breeze held a hint of colder weather to come. There were still a lot of birds around, especially the ones that didn't go south for the winter. Flights of geese passed by daily and he liked to see them.

Eventually, Rebekah came out the back door. She looked a bit tousled and annoyed. She was wearing the dress she had had on the evening before. Despite having on high heels, she chose to walk through the nearby woods to her brother's house, now her own home. She stopped to speak to Stefan before she went.

"Are you sure you don't want a ride home?" he asked her. He wondered why Damon hadn't offered.

"No. I feel like walking," she said. She leaned close and kissed his mouth.

Stefan could smell Damon on her and she smelled of sex. She suddenly zipped away in a blur and was gone.

After a while, Stefan went inside with his plate and coffee cup. Damon was drinking coffee while he made toast. He looked freshly showered.

"How could you _do_ that last night?" he demanded of Stefan. He had a threatening scowl on his face and his blue eyes glittered. He rubbed the back of his neck, which really didn't hurt anymore.

"You already know why. Elena didn't want you to follow her. She _wanted _to talk to Klaus' mother. And you wouldn't let her."

"I was trying to _protect_ her," Damon growled.

Stefan didn't want to get into a fight with his brother, so he left the kitchen quickly. In fact, he went outside and to his car. He got in and sat thinking for a minute in the silence. He was surprised to hear a tiny, rapid heartbeat again. How could that be? Was some little animal in his car? It was possible, but not likely. If not, where was the sound coming from? He sat listening, concentrating. He could definitely hear it.

He took out his cell phone and he called Damon, who snarled at him over the phone. "What?"

"I'm out in my car. Come out here for a minute. I want you to hear something."

"I'm eating."

"It'll only take a minute."

"So you can snap my neck again?"

"No, Damon. Forget the neck thing, will you? Get over it. I need you to come hear something."

"Apologize for the neck thing."

"I apologize for that. I do. I'm sorry. Now, _please_ come to my car."

He heard Damon mutter a curse and then hang up. Would he come? In a moment, Damon came from around the back of the house to where the Porsche was parked in the driveway.

"What am I supposed to hear?" he demanded at the driver's side window, which Stefan had opened.

"Get in the other side."

With an impatient huff, Damon walked around the car and got in, slamming the door. Stefan closed the window on his side.

"Just listen and tell me what you hear," Stefan said. In a moment, he added, "Stop breathing and stop your heart."

Damon glared at him, but did what Stefan said. They sat there in the silent car. Stefan could hear the faint rapid heartbeat; could Damon?

"I don't know what I'm supposed to hear," Damon muttered.

"You don't hear _anything?_" Stefan asked worriedly. Was he hearing things?

After another moment of silence, Damon said, "I hear a mouse or bird. A heartbeat."

With some relief, Stefan said, "That's what I hear, too. But I can't find it."

"So what? It could be anywhere in the car."

"I've been hearing it in the house once in a while and when it's really quiet, like now in the car. Maybe it's just in my head. It's like it's following me around."

"That's ridiculous. You'd know if it was on your body," Damon said with a snort. But then an idea crept into his mind. "Or _in_ your body," he added. He looked at Stefan, who seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Okay, Stefan. Hold still," Damon murmured and he leaned closer to his brother's body, especially his abdomen.

"Crap," he muttered.

"Don't tell me it's in _there_," Stefan uttered fearfully, laying a hand on his abdomen.

Damon sat up and stared at Stefan. He nodded.

"No! It can't be!" Stefan's fear of this started adrenaline pumping through his system.

"Something is alive in your belly, brother. And we know _when_ it got there."

"No! No!" Stefan groaned, slamming his fists on the steering wheel.

"It can't be what we're thinking because that's impossible. It couldn't happen. It wouldn't survive," Damon reasoned. And yet almost seven weeks had passed since Stefan had been kidnapped and mysterious bruises had been put on his abdomen.

"Strange things happen! Witches' power, for instance," Stefan groaned. He put his hands on the steering wheel and they were trembling.

"We're jumping to conclusions here. Foolish conclusions."

"It's a baby! I know it! It's a _baby_!" Stefan gasped, freaking out. He ran his fingers through his hair, grabbing fistsful of it.

"Stop it, Stefan! Calm down. It could be anything alive. Some alien thing. Hell, maybe you were beamed up to a space ship and you have no memory of it."

"That's crazy! I wasn't beamed anywhere!"

"Then where'd you go for three hours?"

"I don't know. I don't _know_!" Stefan said, fearfully. He thought this was totally insane. He was a male and a vampire and he couldn't possibly have a baby in his abdomen. If not, what was in there? Why was a tiny heart tripping along?

AN I hope you all like this chapter. I already have an idea for the next one. _Please_ review. I treasure your opinions!


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me.

"ULTRASOUND"

The brothers sat in the Porsche in silence for a long moment, and then Damon said, "We need to have a doctor examine you. One who has one of those machines that scans a belly. You know, like women have done so they can see their baby," Damon said as they sat in the car.

"Oh, sure. 'Doctor, I'm a sterile male vampire, but I think I've got a baby in my belly. Can you check it out?' That would go over big," Stefan said with a snort. His own heart was pounding from the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

"Now, wait a minute. Ric has been sleeping with that Dr. Fell. I don't trust her, but she's a baby doctor. She must have one of those machines in her office. And she knows you're a vampire," Damon reasoned. He pulled out his phone and called Alaric.

"Hey, Ric. Yeah, it's me on a Sunday morning. Look, I need to talk to that lady doctor friend of yours. How can I reach her this morning? Oh? She's with you. Let me talk to her."

While Stefan sat nervously drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, Damon glanced at him. This is really weird, he thought.

"Hello, Dr. Fell. This is Damon Salvatore. Yeah, I know you know who I am. Look, something strange has come up. My brother Stefan has something alive in his belly. A heartbeat. He needs to have one of those scans like you do to show a woman her baby. Yeah, an ultrasound . No, I don't know what's in there, but he's freaking out over this. Okay, where's your office? All right. We can meet you there in fifteen minutes."

Meredith Fell was secretly elated over this development. The embryo was still alive and well! She was going to get to examine Stefan and see how it was doing! She hadn't expected him to detect its presence so soon. Oh well. She just hoped that he didn't insist on its removal. She'd have to try to dissuade him.

"Okay," Damon said to Stefan. "Let me go back to the kitchen and be sure I didn't leave anything on the stove. Then we'll go over to her office. You all right with that?"

Unable to say anything, Stefan just nodded.

Damon soon returned. He found Stefan resting his forehead on the steering wheel.

"Get out and let me drive," he said, opening the driver's side door. He took hold of Stefan's arm and gently pulled. Stefan got out of the car, went around to the other side and got in again.

"If it's a baby, the doctor can take it out," the younger brother said, hoping for a simple solution. How could this happen? "Who would do this to me?" He had his arms folded across his chest, trying to hide the fact that his hands were trembling. He could still feel the adrenaline coursing through his body. It hadn't let up. The truth was that he was deeply shaken.

"I have no idea. Besides, you don't know there's a baby in there. Let's wait and see what the test shows," Damon said calmly. He could afford to be calm; he didn't have something alive inside him. He drove to the one-story building that had three doctors' offices and one dental office. Both Alaric and the doctor were getting out of their own cars as Damon parked the Porsche.

As they came together by the door to the doctor's office, both Damon and Stefan could smell the alcohol on the breath of the other two. Drinking so early?

"Come on inside," Dr. Fell said as she unlocked the door. She turned on the lights and led the way to a room in the back. The three men trooped after her. Alaric didn't intend to be left out. The little room was soon crowded, but the doctor didn't insist anyone leave.

"Stefan, I'm Dr. Fell. How are you feeling?" she asked, holding out her hand.

"I'm shaking. I'm afraid there's a baby inside me," he admitted. He shook her hand even though he knew she could feel the tremor there. If he had been human, his palm would have been sweaty.

"Let's not jump to conclusion, shall we? I want you to lie on this examining table. Undo your shirt and push your pants down just a little. Okay?"

Stefan did as he was told as far as getting on the table was concerned, but he couldn't hide the fact that his hands were shaking so badly that he struggled to undo the buttons of his shirt.

"Hey, let me do that or we'll be here all day," Damon said and he moved close enough to undo the buttons and open the shirt. He let Stefan push his jeans down another couple of inches, until his abdomen was fully exposed.

Dr. Fell took a stethoscope and began to listen to different areas of Stefan's abdomen, even though she already knew where the heartbeat was located. She then listened to the steady pittypat of the very tiny heart. It was on Stefan's left side between his ribs and his pelvic bone at the waist.

"You're right. It's a heartbeat," she confirmed.

"I _know_ that," Stefan said. "But what is it? A baby?"

"We'll see," the doctor said. I'm hoping it looks like a normal embryo, she thought. It was difficult for her to keep her own hands from shaking. This was incredibly exciting!

Dr. Fell knew the men were watching as she proceeded to do the ultrasound test. She was very careful to avoid having the little drug reservoirs show up, since the men could all see the monitor screen where the image was displayed. She knew she was the only one who understood what they were looking at.

"All right. There it is," she finally said. "It looks like a developing embryo of the human kind. It's …"

"It's a baby," Stefan groaned.

"Yes. How did you come by this, Stefan?"

"I don't know," he said nervously. He quickly told her what he knew of the night he had been taken. "How can this happen? I mean, I'm a sterile male vampire! I can't be pregnant unless someone opened me up and put it in there!"

"Yes, I agree," Dr. Fell said. "It's attached to the inside of your abdominal wall right under where I'm holding the probe."

"Take it out for me," Stefan said urgently.

"I need you to take your time and consider things."

"What's to consider? I don't want to have a baby. I don't want to walk around with a big belly. I'd have to hide away somewhere. I can't take care of a baby. I want it _out._" His heart was still pounding. He honestly was afraid of the little thing living inside him.

"This embryo is about six or seven weeks old. It's still extremely tiny. I can terminate it any time during the first three months. I won't do it after that. But think about this. Here you are a sterile vampire. You can't father any children even if you wanted to. At the moment, you actually may be able to have a child."

"It isn't _mine_. I'm not related to this thing," Stefan insisted.

"It's a miracle. It's growing. It has a chance. You have a chance to be a parent. Plenty of women carry babies that aren't of their blood, but they love them. Do you think you can do that for a little while?"

"Why should I?" Stefan asked, frowning and looking at this woman who was more interested in the thing than in him. Of course she would be; she was an obstetrician. Babies were her business.

"I just suggested why, Stefan," she said patiently. "You are in a unique position to have a child of your own. I don't know how old you are, but have you ever wished you could father a child?"

Stefan knew he had once wished he could have a baby with Elena. It would have been great. Now this thing had happened and he wasn't on good terms with Elena. He didn't know if the damaged relationship could be repaired. He wanted it, but was it too late? And anyway, why would she want this child of unknown parentage? That was not to say that she might actually love the baby. Maybe she would. Like an adopted child. People loved their adopted children.

Stefan didn't answer the woman.

"This is a decision you shouldn't make right now, Stefan. You're in shock and it's a bad time to make a decision you might regret," the doctor said evenly. "Try to wait. You have two more months. No one will really know you're pregnant."

Stefan looked at Damon and then at Alaric. Neither man seemed to have an answer. The fact was that only Stefan could make the decision. He stared at the ceiling and didn't know what to say.

"If he waits," Damon said, "he could become emotionally attached to the thing. I don't know if that's a good idea." There was something about this that didn't feel right, something that was nagging his mind, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. It was more than the fact that Stefan had an embryo in his abdomen. He pushed the niggling feeling aside and listened to Stefan's reply.

"I don't intend to become emotionally attached," Stefan stated firmly. He was becoming calmer. His shock had eased and he no longer had adrenaline pumping through his body.

Dr. Fell had noticed how hard his heart had been pumping. It was so different from when she had had him on the operating table and he had had no heartbeat at all. Now, his heart was slowing. His panic had ceased and he was getting control over his fear, but now he felt the let-down.

"Will you wait?" she asked.

"_You_ want me to wait because this is really weird and you want to see what happens. Am I right?" Stefan accused.

"I can't deny that. So, please wait. Two more months. What do you say?" she said.

"You won't remove it _now_ if I insist?"

"No. I just couldn't do it, Stefan."

"All right. Dammit. I'll wait. What do I have to do?" Why am I letting her talk me into this? he wondered.

"You have excellent abdominal muscles, which will protect the embryo. Just try to keep it safe. Try not to get hurt. No fighting. Eat right. Go easy on the alcohol. Do you smoke?"

Stefan shook his head. "I can't believe this," he said as he sat up and buttoned his shirt. He got off the table and adjusted his jeans up to where they belonged. "Well, thank you for doing the test. At least now I know where the little heartbeat is coming from."

Damon and Stefan left the office before the other two people. In the car, Damon said, "You know you can go to another doctor. You also know I can force my hand in there and rip the thing out, although I'm not sure I can find the tiny thing."

"I know. But I think she has convinced me to wait. It's not something that I have to do right now. Maybe that sounds stupid, but I'm not sure anymore. I'm going to wait." He leaned his head against the side window. He felt tired now.

"It's your baby," Damon said as he drove home. A hint of a smile touched his lips. Maybe I'm going to be a new uncle! This is _so_ weird.

A/N Well, what do you think? I already have an idea for the next chapter. Please review. Thanks.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me.

A/N Thanks so much for the reviews, guys.

"Teasing Klaus"

Needless to say, the four people who had witnessed the ultrasound could not forget what they knew. It would be on their minds, off and on, all day.

"Don't tell Elena about this," Stefan said to Damon when they got home. "Promise. It's my place when and if to tell her."

"Fine. But I think she should know. You need to tell her."

"This thing is like a little parasite inside me. Like some tropical worm," Stefan muttered as he headed for the liquor cart. He poured himself a hefty drink.

"Drink enough and maybe you can kill it," Damon observed in a bit of a snarky tone.

"Damn. I forgot about that. I guess a small drink won't hurt," Stefan said and he poured most of the whiskey back in the decanter. A thought came to his mind and he chuckled.

"What's funny?"

"All the times Klaus messed with me, I ought to tell him he got me pregnant just to see the expression on his face."

"I suspect he would look shocked for a second and then he'd realize you were lying," Damon said as he poured himself a more generous drink. "He's just as sterile as the rest of us and even if he isn't, he couldn't get you pregnant."

"I know that, but the expression on his face would be worth it."

With this new development, Damon had forgotten about the neck-breaking incident. He wasn't angry about it anymore. He still had the unnamed feeling of unease that had occurred in the doctor's office. He wasn't afraid of doctors' offices, so it wasn't that. And it wasn't that his brother's abdomen had been violated, even though that was disturbing. What then? Again, he shrugged it off.

"What are you going to do today?" he asked his brother. He knew the young man was confused and had no idea what to do now. He looked tired, emotionally tired.

"One thing I'm going to do is write this in my journal. And I'm going to listen to my iPod so I can't hear the damn heartbeat," Stefan grumbled. Suddenly a grin came to his face again. "But first, I _am_ going to go see Klaus. I really want to see his expression."

"Come on, Stefan! Klaus isn't one to play a joke on," Damon admonished.

"I gotta do it. I need a laugh today, Damon. At Klaus' expense," Stefan said seriously. He harbored a lot of hostility toward the man who had taken months of his life from him and had abused him. He headed for the door as Damon shook his head and rolled his eyes.

Stefan drove to Klaus' mansion. Driving was a bit out of the way, considering that he could have walked through the woods. He parked in the driveway where several vehicles were sitting. A small group of hybrids were sitting on the porch, drinking beer and watching some sport on a television. They only glanced at the young man as he entered the house.

Stefan met Finn in the main hallway and asked to see Klaus. He was directed to a smallish room that Klaus was using as an office. The blond hybrid was genuinely pleased to see his former traveling companion. Stefan closed the office door behind him.

"Stefan! You came to visit on your own," Klaus said, getting up from his desk. He gave Stefan a quick hug with one arm over his shoulder and Stefan grit his teeth and let him. "What brings you to my humble abode this morning, love?"

"I wanted to congratulate you. I'm pregnant!" Stefan said. He saw a look of surprise come quickly to the man's face. Klaus stared at him for a long moment, and then looked a bit bewildered. Stefan enjoyed that moment.

"If that is a joke, I'm afraid I don't get it," the blond man admitted.

"No joke. I'm pregnant. Aren't you proud?" Stefan said with a little grin.

"Excuse me? I wasn't born yesterday, you know. I know where babies come from. Don't you? Let me enlighten you. A guy and a gal have sex. His sperm joins with her egg and behold! a baby gets started! Now, since I don't have any sperm and you don't have any eggs or the right equipment, _we _can't have a baby. So, what's going on here, love?" By now Klaus had a scowl on his forehead, but a smirk on his lips.

"A baby! Isn't that great?" Stefan faked a look of enthusiasm.

"Stefan! Quit screwing with me. What's going on?"

"You don't believe me. Isn't that just like a man? Won't own up to his responsibility," Stefan said, shaking his head, but knowing he was at the limit of teasing Klaus.

"You have one minute, mate, before I toss you out of here. Explain."

"All right. All right. I _am_ pregnant. Someone knocked me out with vervain over a month ago and implanted an embryo. The damn thing is still alive and growing in my belly. I just had an ultrasound examination. It's there." Stefan did not put a hand over the spot. He suddenly envisioned Klaus punching him there and he felt an urge to protect the tiny thing.

Klaus really did gape at this news. It was the look Stefan wanted to see and it made him grin. Ha! Really got you this time, he thought smugly. Priceless! And yet, he didn't feel all that good about it.

"I bet you never thought something like this could happen_. I_ certainly never did," he said with a chuckle, even though the situation wasn't funny.

"Aren't you going to get rid of it?" Klaus asked with concern for his former 'slave.'

"Not yet," Stefan said and he explained some of what the doctor had said.

"You're going to get attached to the little bastard," Klaus said with a warning tone, a wry smile teasing his mouth.

"That's what Damon said. That's what the doctor is hoping. I don't know what I'll do. Look, I just wanted to see how you'd react. See the look on your face. I really had you going for a moment there, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did, love," Klaus said and he suddenly reached out, put a hand behind Stefan's neck and drew him close.

Stefan braced his hands against Klaus' chest to keep a little space between them.

"Stay for a little while," Klaus whispered suggestively, running his other hand down Stefan's back.

"No. That's over and done with, Klaus. You have no right to abuse me anymore. I think we had this conversation before and nothing has changed. Let go of me," Stefan said, annoyed.

"Abuse, huh? I think you still have feelings for me. You just don't want to admit it."

"My feelings are anger and disgust. Let go of me." Stefan's voice was firm, but calm. He had no desire to come to blows with the man who was so much stronger.

Klaus let go of Stefan and backed away a step. A smirk came to his face. "Fine. Well, let me know what happens to that little bun in your oven. I really am interested."

Stefan left the office and walked from the beautiful house. He was angry, as opposed to feeling good for shocking Klaus. The hybrid just had to spoil everything. Still, there had been the moments of triumph.

By the time he got home, Stefan's emotions had returned to gloom and confusion over the embryo in his abdomen. He really wished it was not there, but Dr. Fell's words kept coming back. He had an opportunity to have a child. In over one hundred and forty five years, his only opportunity.

When he went into the house, Damon stopped him from going upstairs.

"What happened? Was he shocked?"

"Yeah, he was. Of course, he knew he wasn't the father. I told him what happened," Stefan said with no enthusiasm. "I wish I knew more. Dr. Fell said it's tiny. What does that mean? Tiny?"

"I looked it up on the Internet," Damon said. "Seven weeks. Do you remember when we were kids and you found the nest with newborn mice in it? You showed it to me. Remember how tiny they were? Well, your baby is not quite even that big. It's tiny."

"I don't understand how I can even hear its heart."

"Because it's beating and we have acute hearting."

Stefan shook his head in dismay and went up the stairs to his room, where he wrote in his journal. He listened to music so that there was no chance he would hear the heartbeat. And yet, after finishing his writing, he removed the ear buds and sat in the quiet room. But the room was not quiet enough. Somewhere in the neighborhood, music was playing loudly. He suspected that the Quincy family down the street were having a party out in their back yard.

He put his hand on the spot on his abdomen. Somewhere under it there beat a tiny heart. The beginning of a human baby. Would it really be human? Would growing in a male, and a vampire at that, somehow have a bad influence on the developing thing? Did it matter, since he didn't want to carry it very long? What if he changed his mind?

He wanted a break from the stress he was feeling. He felt really tired. He wasn't one to take naps, but he wanted a chance to rest his body and his mind. He lay flat on his bed and relaxed so he could doze off, but his mind kept churning. He had no answers. He finally forced his body and mind to shut down into the sleep of the undead. He needed rest if he was going to be a daddy/mommy.

A/N Poor Stefan doesn't know which way to turn, but the baby is a fact. Please review. Keep suggestions coming.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as Kaitlyn, are mine.

A/N Finally getting this chapter published. I hope you all like it.

"Some Secrets Revealed"

Elena found out that Stefan had a secret when she was talking to Damon one day. She mentioned that she thought Stefan could get hurt if he continued going after Klaus and he should be more careful. Damon jumped to a conclusion.

"So, he finally told you. I'm glad," he said. He thought it was about time. Stefan had put it off for several weeks, perhaps thinking the embryo would perish or that he would soon get rid of it and Elena didn't ever need to know. Damon knew Stefan was torn between being protective and wanting it gone.

"Told me what?" Elena quickly asked, frowning.

"Oops. Forget it. It's just something I thought he should tell you."

"Tell me, Damon. You brought it up."

"Nope. Can't. You'll have to ask Stefan," he said, rolling his eyes, and he would say no more on the subject.

Elena didn't run right out and corner Stefan, but soon she had the opportunity to confront him. They were standing in her driveway because he had given her a ride home from school in his Porsche and during the short drive he had talked about something interesting he had seen during his travels with Klaus. Elena knew her relationship with Stefan was still awkward, but each of them harbored some hope. She hoped for honesty from him.

"I was talking to Damon yesterday and apparently he thought I knew something he thought you were going to tell me," she said evenly.

"Did he say what it was?" Stefan asked, scowling and uncomfortable. Damon and his big mouth!

"No. He said I should ask you. Is it something serious? You know I care about you, Stefan. I worry that you're going to do something crazy to get back at Klaus. I mean, beyond all the crazy stuff we all have already done."

"It'll probably take something crazier to get him," Stefan said, avoiding the question.

"Look, if it's none of my business, it's all right, Stefan. But if it's something I really should know, please tell me."

"It isn't."

"All right. I guess you'll tell me when you're ready."

"I'm pregnant," Stefan blurted out softly, not looking at her. He felt his face get red.

Elena took a step back and caught her breath. This was the last possible thing she could have come up with, and she had considered many possibilities.

"What?" she said in a squeak.

"I'm pregnant. There's an embryo growing in my stomach," he murmured. He laid a hand against the left side of his shirt.

Elena shook her head in disbelief, her mouth agape. She certainly knew how babies were made and she was sure he couldn't make one. Either as a father or as a mother.

"How… How is that possible? Where'd it come from?"

"I'll explain. Get back in the car," Stefan said. They reentered the Porsche and he

managed to tell her what had happened, from his kidnapping to the ultrasound examination.

"Oh my God! I can't believe this. After a long stunned moment, Elena asked, "So, how far along are you?"

"About ten weeks. I haven't been counting."

"Can I hear it?" Elena asked, staring at him.

"I don't think so. It's too small. You can try," Stefan said. He leaned back away from the steering wheel and pointed to where Elena should listen. She leaned down, getting her left ear as close to the left side of his abdomen as possible. It put her face in an awkward place.

"Don't even suggest it," she said, lifting her head enough to glance up at him and seeing a smile tease his mouth.

He stopped breathing and stopped his heart and remained still. After a moment, she sat up, shaking her head. "I think I heard your intestines gurgling."

"I didn't think you could hear the heartbeat. It's fast and tiny. Even with you in the car, I can't hear it, because I can hear your heart and your breath. And the hammering on the house next door and that dog barking and the siren over on Oak Street. Etc."

"You live in a noisy world," Elena said.

"I block most of it out, just as you do."

"What are you going to do about this little thing, Stefan?"

He told her his thoughts, especially about never expecting to have a child. "It boils down to the fact that I don't know what I'm going to do."

"I can see why you're conflicted, Stefan. If I were in your shoes, I don't know what I would do either. Of course, as a human woman, I would know I could have more children when I was really ready."

"You'd consider terminating a pregnancy at this point in your life?" Stefan asked. They had never discussed that topic because he couldn't get her pregnant.

"I honestly don't know. I guess it would really matter who the father was," Elena admitted. It was not like she had had sex with a lot of guys. She hadn't. But, except with Stefan, she had insisted on the use of protection.

Stefan knew that the thing Damon had warned about was happening. He already felt a bit protective of the life he was carrying. In fact, in the stillness of night, he could hear the little heart and knew his baby was all right.

A couple of weeks later Stefan received a phone call from Dr. Fell. She asked if he could come in after-hours for another ultrasound. He said he could. Damon overheard his conversation and said he wanted to go along. It was all right with Stefan.

The two of them met the doctor at her office. She had just come from surgery and was still wearing blue scrubs. In a couple of minutes, Stefan was again lying on the examining table with his shirt open. This time he was not in a panic.

Meredith placed a bit of cold jelly over the spot and pressed the probe there. "There it is, Stefan. You can see it right there," she said, pointing to a spot on the monitor screen. "It has little arms and legs. Can you see?"

"Yes!" Stefan said, amazed. He felt overcome with emotion and covered it with a cough. The probe slipped toward the middle of his abdomen.

"What the hell is _that_?" Damon demanded as he spotted an odd thing. In fact, two odd things.

"Well!" Meredith said, acting surprised. "Look at that. Those are some kind of drug reservoirs. I think that's what's been helping the embryo to survive. By the way, I think we can call it a fetus now. It's big enough, even though it's still really small."

"Move the probe around, doc," Damon said. "Look for some more of those things."

Meredith did. She had no choice. There were four of them.

"If I have you remove the baby, will you remove those things?" Stefan found himself asking.

"Of course. You aren't ready for that, are you? It's still very small."

"No. I guess not," Stefan said, ambivalent about this whole thing. He looked at Damon, who was looking back. Damon didn't have to say it out loud, but Stefan could see that he knew that he, Stefan, was getting really attached to the little miracle.

Meredith was very pleased with the progress the young vampire's burden was making. The embryo had survived and had moved into the early fetal stage. It was attached well to the inside of his abdominal wall and the tiny placenta was sucking nourishment from him. She had worried about its oxygen supply because she knew sleeping vampires didn't breathe nor did their hearts beat, but apparently his body harbored enough blood oxygen that the implant was surviving. It was fantastic!

That evening Meredith took Ric to her house after a date. He didn't really feel well and she suggested he stay the night. She went into her bedroom for a moment and when she came back to the door, she saw Ric looking at file folders and medical examiner charts she had foolishly left on her kitchen table. She knew they referred to Bill Forbes and to the previous medical examiner who had been killed. There was also a knife with blood on it wrapped in a towel. Ric picked it up and looked at it. A look of alarm and suspicion came to his face. In fact, a hard look came to his eyes.

Afraid for her safety, she took from her purse a small .38 pistol. She confronted Ric and he raised the knife threateningly. She shot him, catching him in the shoulder. He dropped the knife, gaped at her and fell to the floor. She called 911.

Ric's injury turned out not to be nearly as serious as it could have been. The bullet had hit muscle and yet missed major blood vessels and bone. Still, he had to stay in the hospital for a bit. Sheriff Forbes investigated the shooting, of course. She talked to Meredith during the night and would talk to Ric when she could.

Meredith explained that she had the records because she was very interested in who had killed the men and why. The same with the knife. She told Liz that Ric had seemed momentarily crazy and pulled the knife on her. As for the gun, she had a permit to carry it. She sometimes had to be out at night because of having to deliver babies or perform emergency C-sections.

Meredith had other concerns, of course, and one was the situation with Stefan. She kept a record of what was going on, but she kept the record at home. She didn't want any of her office personnel to see it. She did keep her accomplices, Kaitlyn, Owen and Joe informed because they were curious and because she needed to be able to share her excitement with someone. Although Ric knew about Stefan's "problem," she couldn't rave about it to him. Needless to say, she was relieved that Ric had not seen Stefan's record.

Stefan and Kaitlyn ran into each other at the Grill. He didn't know her, but she recognized him right away, even though she had only seen him lying down. People often looked different lying down and unconscious than when they were upright and alert. She had not seen him in all this time. Their paths had not crossed and she hadn't gone out of her way to find him. On this late afternoon, she was at the Grill with a friend named Gary, who knew Stefan and who introduced them. "Stefan, Kaitlyn Fell. Kaitlyn, Stefan Salvatore."

Almost immediately something about Kaitlyn disturbed Stefan. Something beyond the name Fell. He didn't know what it was until he realized that she was wearing the scent from the night he was kidnapped. So? Lot's of women probably wore that. He knew Elena had used the same scented skin lotion for a while in the past.

What really made Stefan's stomach knot up was when the young man told Stefan that she was a nurse anesthetist at the local hospital. Oh yeah? Someone had handled his head while he was unconscious, while he underwent surgery! Someone had administered enough vervain to keep him out for three hours. Someone like an anesthesia person!

"Have you been in this area long?" he asked her as they stood near the pool table.

"A little over six months now," Kaitlyn said. She noticed a really intense look on his face. Here she was talking to _the _vampire who was wide awake and eyeing her with keen dark green eyes. He was taller than she expected. Fear crept through her. What if he recognized her? What if he already knew she had been there that night? Was he angry? He ought to be. Did he intend revenge? What would he do to her? Suck all her blood out or just kill her?

"Gary, would you mind if I talked to Kaitlyn alone? I have a question about anesthesia. It's sort of personal. It'll just take a couple of minutes," Stefan said to her companion.

"No, I don't mind," the fellow Gary said. "I'll be over at the bar." He turned away and didn't see the look of alarm that came to her face.

When they were alone, so to speak, Stefan said, "Let's step outside." He took hold of her elbow. Besides the skin cream scent, her natural scent came to him and he knew for certain that she was the one who had had her hands on his face.

Kaitlyn yanked her arm free. "I just met you! I'm _not_ going outside." She knew he

could see her fear. In a low hiss, she added, "I know what you are."

"I'll bet you do," Stefan growled. "You were _there_, weren't you? I know your scent. It was all over my face and in my hair."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, but she knew her body language and the tremor in her voice betrayed her. Oh, she was in trouble now!

"Let's go outside. I won't hurt you," Stefan said softly. He looked into her eyes intently, hoping to compel her. He could hear her heart pounding.

"No," she said, a quaver in her voice.

He then knew she was on vervain. No surprise there.

"What's your last name again?" he asked, a sudden suspicion springing to mind. There were several Fell families in the region. The Fells were a Founding Family.

"Why?"

"Didn't Gary say 'Fell'? Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me, Kaitlyn. It's Fell, isn't it?"

Kaitlyn swallowed hard and couldn't get a word out. She glanced over at the bar, but Gary was chatting with someone. "Please don't hurt me," she whispered. "I never meant you any harm. Please." Then she realized that she had just admitted to having been "there."

"I said I wouldn't hurt you," Stefan said. His voice was soft now, reassuring. "You can trust me." He mentally sent out a wave of trust. He hoped to calm her fears so that she would talk with him and explain, but she was too afraid and the vervain interfered. He didn't touch her again. She would scream if he did, he was sure. And there were too many people around.

Kaitlyn shook her head. She wasn't about to go anywhere with him, nor was she going to trust him. Who was he kidding?

"I just want to know. I know what was done to me. I suppose I can guess why. But I would really like to know who to thank for it. I want to get the facts straight in my head," he said in a hushed voice.

Again, she shook her head. She suspected he already had figured out the answers. He knew her name was Fell. And he'd been to Meredith's office. Oh, God! Help!

A/N I have to leave this with a little cliff-hanger. I'll work on more when I get the time. Am I heading in the right direction? Please review or comment.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as Kaitlyn, are mine.

A/N I had this chapter ready to go, but I didn't want to publish it in May because I already had put on eight other things, chapters of _Vertigo _and _The Implant_, plus _Fear In_ _Control_. So, June is a new month!

"FAINT"

Stefan could hear Kaitlyn's heart pounding. She was really afraid of him. If they had been outside, he could have pushed more, could have threatened, but not in the midst of the Grill's customers.

Damon walked in and came over to stand beside his brother.

"Kaitlyn, this is my brother Damon," Stefan said and he saw her eyes widen more than before as she looked into Damon's blue eyes. "Damon, this is Kaitlyn _Fell_. It seems she is an _anesthesia_ person. And when was the last time I had _anesthesia _of some sort?"

"Oh, my," Damon said with a wry smile. He tilted his head and then pointedly inhaled near Kaitlyn. "Yes, you're right, brother. I recognize her scent. And I have something to tell you. I remembered …. Whoa!"

Stefan and Damon both heard the young woman's heart slowing down more and more. Her face became pale and a sweat had broken out on her upper lip. She was going to faint.

As Kaitlyn stared at the blue-eyed brother, another vampire, she felt herself sweating and she felt weird. There was a ringing coming to her ears and spots before her eyes. She felt weak. She was going to faint! She couldn't remember the last time she had fainted! The room seemed to shift around her.

"I got you, Kaitlyn," Stefan said and she was aware that he took hold of her. She felt him lift her in his arms. He was strong. She definitely heard him call out, "Gary! Gary, Kaitlyn has fainted!" She was against his chest and his voice vibrated his body. She also knew that her hip was close to the little baby he had in his abdomen.

She didn't pass out completely, although she was limp. She couldn't really see properly or hear well, but she knew when Stefan laid her carefully on the floor. Gary was there talking to her and asking Stefan what happened.

"We were talking and she started to look pale and shaky," Stefan said. "I could see she was about to pass out. When did she eat last?"

"It's been quite a while. We came here to get dinner," came Gary's voice. "You're going to be all right, Kaitlyn. Take some deep breaths."

She felt a cold cloth being laid on her forehead.

Kaitlyn also felt someone touch her ankles and she slowly shifted her eyes down along her body. She saw that it was Damon. He had knelt down, taken hold of her ankles and lifted them about a foot off the floor. He knows that will raise my low blood pressure, she thought. He's doing the right thing.

Little by little her blood pressure came up and the symptoms began to fade. She no longer saw spots and the ringing in her ears faded. She felt very hollow. She really needed to eat. She looked up at all the faces of people standing around staring down at her. It was embarrassing.

"How are you feeling?" Gary asked, his face coming into her view. He laid a cool hand on her forehead.

"Better. Let me just lie here for a bit more," she said. Her eyes found Stefan, who was standing beside his brother. Damon was still kneeling and still had her feet elevated a little. Both brothers looked concerned. Neither looked like they were thinking of ways to kill her. How could she avoid more questioning?

"Maybe someone can bring me some orange juice?" she murmured. Perhaps her blood sugar was low. Or perhaps she was just frightened half to death.

The bartender brought over a glass and she sat up to drink it after Damon put her feet back down. She took a deep breath and looked up at Stefan. "I know you have more questions for me, but do you mind if I answer them at a later time? I guess I really need to get some food in me," she said as evenly as she could.

"Sure. That's fine, Kaitlyn," Stefan said with a small smile. "I hope you feel better quickly."

"Thank you," she said. Thank you for backing off. Thank you for not hurting me. It was with great relief that she saw the brothers walk toward the front door. She just hoped they would not be waiting for her outside.

Out in the parking lot, the brothers walked to Stefan's car and stood beside it.

"Well, that was a surprise," Stefan said. "If I hadn't smelled her scent, I'd never have guessed she was the one."

"Well, I have another surprise for you. Something has been bothering me both times we went to the doctor's office for the ultrasounds," Damon said. "I couldn't pinpoint what it was. Just a little while ago it came to me right out of the blue. Her scent. Dr. Fell's scent. It was on your clothes. She's the one, Stefan. I'm sure of it."

"Damn. I believe you. It makes sense," Stefan said, not as surprised as he might have been. "She's a surgeon and an obstetrician. She's totally into this baby of mine. I bet she deliberately avoided letting us see those other things that are in my belly. That's why it suddenly occurred to me that with Kaitlyn's last name being Fell, the doctor might be involved. If we're right …"

"We're right."

"Damn! Then I don't know what to do. Meredith Fell's crazy, Damon. She did this to me. Just snatched me out of the woods, operated on me and then threw me back in the woods. She's deceived me, pretending to be surprised when she did the ultrasound."

"Yup."

"And she's dangerous. She may have killed two men and she shot Ric! How do we prove she's guilty?"

"I guess just talking to her is out," Damon said. "I think she's too clever to admit to anything, although we could say that Kaitlyn blabbed the truth."

"I think they both use vervain so we can't compel them. Now, Kaitlyn will probably call her as soon as she can and tell her what happened. She'll be prepared with alibis and excuses," Stefan said.

"You could always call her and ask for another exam. Say there might be something wrong with the baby. She might go for it, even if she knew we knew. We'd get the chance to talk to her, at least. Put pressure on her somehow."

"I'm really wary of letting her touch me now. But if I don't go to her eventually, who do I go to?" He laid a hand over his left side protectively.

"I don't know, Stef. I don't see any reason for you to go to her again for quite a while," Damon reasoned. "You still have some time."

"Not a lot. And you know what else bothers me? I suppose while she had me vervained, Kaitlyn must have seen me _naked_. We know they took my clothes off," Stefan said, feeling humiliated. "And there I was talking to her like she hadn't seen me all naked."

"Stefan, come on. How many women have seen you naked? Lots."

"I know, but that was _my choice_. I didn't even know Kaitlyn was looking me over. Geez, I must have been lying on an operating table with at least four people seeing my stuff."

"I don't for one minute believe you're ashamed of what you have. We're built the same, Stefan, and I know damned well I'm not even a little disappointed by what I have. Be proud of what you got, bro," Damon said with a smirk. He gave his brother a friendly punch in the shoulder.

"I am. That's not the point, Damon! I feel like some voyeur was watching me."

"You worry about the damnedest things," Damon said with a snort and a shake of his head. "Why are you obsessing about this when you have more important things to worry about? How about I go in there and keep an eye on Miss Fell. It might make her nervous and she'll decide to leave. And when she comes out …"

"No. Let her be. She needs to eat," Stefan said.

"Fine. I'm still going in. I came to get a drink and see if I can pick up someone. What are you going to do?"

"I think I'll go hunting. Rabbits. I need to kill something," Stefan growled and he got into his car. He drove home, but his mind was on Kaitlyn and Dr. Fell. He knew Damon was right. Being naked in front of the four people who handled him was insignificant compared to the fact that an embryo had been implanted in his abdomen by a rogue surgeon who might be killing people. Now _that_ was worth worrying about.

A/N I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm working on the next chapter. Stefan still has questions for Kaitlyn.


	7. Chapter 7

IMPLANT

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as Kaitlyn, are mine.

A/N Stefan wants to confront Kaitlyn again. Damon and Ric discuss the baby.

"Discussions"

Stefan didn't try to confront Kaitlyn again right away. He did follow her from her place of work that week. She left the hospital around three thirty in the afternoon one day and five o'clock the next day. He suspected that she went to work earlier than he needed to get to school, so he went early the next morning to the address he had seen her go to and he parked across the street. He watched as she came out the door of an apartment building and walked to her car. He noted the time. He could confront her any morning he wanted to.

There was no rush. He already knew what he needed to know. Kaitlyn and Meredith, along with two male accomplices, had drugged him, operated on him and left him in the woods with a living embryo implanted in his abdomen. He doubted there was much Kaitlyn could add to that. The question was, could he get pleasure and satisfaction from frightening the young woman again? Should he go so far as to hurt her a bit physically? Should he even bite her? It would serve her right.

He also knew that Meredith was capable of seeking revenge. She wasn't particularly afraid of vampires. He also suspected that Meredith knew that, as far as Stefan and Damon were concerned, their weakness was the safety of their human friends.

Damon went to Ric's loft and had a chat with him. Ric was upset when he learned that the doctor was the one who had implanted the embryo.

"I don't understand Meredith," he told Damon with a worried shake of his head. "She's protective of me, even though she shot me. She obviously knows a hell of a lot about the Founding Families and their secrets. She's convinced me that my ring has done me harm. I believe it. Especially since Elena also believes it. And now you tell me she's the one who did that to Stefan. What the hell kind of woman is she?"

"A complicated and dangerous one, Ric," Damon said. "She seems to care a lot for you. She says she shot you because you threatened her with the knife. I tend to believe that. I don't think she's out to get you. So far, she doesn't seem to be out to get me or Stefan. But the big question is, did she kill Bill Forbes and the other medical examiner? If she did, why?"

"Beats me, buddy," Ric said, taking a swig of his beer. He was rarely without a can of beer or a shot of whiskey, except when he was teaching at school. While he was out injured, a substitute teacher was taking his place. He needed to get back to work, so he wouldn't lose his job.

"What's Stefan going to do about the baby?" he asked Damon, who was also swallowing beer from a can.

"He's just biding his time. He's attached to the damned thing already, Ric. I knew he would be."

"If it was you, would you want it?" Ric asked, studying the younger man.

"I don't know. If it went all the way, what would I do with a kid? We vampires can't stay in one place for more than a few years, then we have to move on. If I took a wife, like Elena, I guess she would have to stay home and raise the kid."

"Maybe, maybe not. First of all, a lot of people have to move around a lot. Military families, for instance. And secondly, there are such things as nannies and daycare. Some moms _can't_ stay home to take care of the child. They have to work. Things work out."

"Yeah. You're right."

"You think Stefan's thinking the same thing? About Elena, I mean?"

"I wouldn't be surprised. There's no telling what the hell Elena's thinking these days. Her relationship with Stefan is not what it used to be, but there's still a bond between them. If he doesn't screw it up, I don't know where it will go."

"That could leave you out in the cold, pal," Ric observed with sympathy.

"I know. I should be fighting to win her, but I find myself backing off because of Stefan's situation. And because she doesn't love me. And damn it, I really _love_ her!"

Ric shook his head. "One thing I know, love hurts," he muttered.

Stefan asked Elena to go early with him to confront Kaitlyn again. He suspected that the presence of another woman would help calm Kaitlyn's fears. He wanted to settle things, to talk things out, get it out in the open. He didn't want her terrified of him. He was not now wanting to hurt her. Elena agreed to go with him as long as they got to school on time.

Stefan parked the red Porsche just down the street from the parking lot where Kaitlyn kept her car. From there, they walked to a place near her car and waited. It was still dark out at this time of year and a bit chilly. Stefan put his arm around Elena's shoulders and she didn't pull away. He liked that. He felt the urge to kiss her, but he resisted.

"Here she comes," he murmured and they moved closer. They heard the click of her car unlocking and the lights inside went on. In a moment Kaitlyn was by her door.

Stefan zipped to a spot about five feet away from her and she gasped. In a moment Elena was there, too. She moved a bit ahead of Stefan.

"It's all right, Miss Fell," Elena said calmly. "I'm Elena. I'm not a vampire. We mean you no harm. Stefan just needs to talk to you. Please don't be afraid."

Kaitlyn backed up a step and looked around frantically. There was no one else around. She looked at the girl, whom she didn't know. Elena must be a trusted friend of Stefan's.

"I don't know what there is to talk about," Kaitlyn said, trying not to show her fear. She needed to get control of herself. "Stefan already knows what he needs to know."

"Do you know why Dr. Fell implanted the embryo in me?" Stefan asked evenly, moving to stand beside Elena. He put a hand lightly on her shoulder. "And where did it come from?"

"I don't know _why_. She has a scientific mind and she works with women having infertility problems. She does _in vitro fertilization_, joining an egg and a sperm, for couples who can't seem to get pregnant. You know, the ones where the woman ends up having five or six babies that were implanted in her uterus.

"Meredith also does abdominal pregnancies using the same technique, but putting one early embryo in the woman's abdomen if she has had a hysterectomy. It's one of her specialties. There are often extra fertilized eggs left over. That's where yours came from. I don't know why she chose a male vampire to do what she did. It doesn't make sense to me. I'm totally blown away that the thing is still alive. I'm sure you are, too."

"You can say that again. I'm adjusting to the idea. You know what _else _bothers me? The fact that I was lying on some operating table _naked._ With you and who knows who else looking me over. You know how humiliated that makes me feel?" Stefan said, frowning. Was he being foolishly overdramatic? He honestly didn't know why that upset him so much.

"Well, you can relax. First of all, you weren't naked. They never took off your underwear. Your modesty and dignity were preserved," Kaitlyn said, surprised the idea had bothered him. It wasn't like he was some sensitive teenage boy, easily embarrassed. Or was he? How old was the vampire Stefan Salvatore? She didn't ask, but she suddenly felt less afraid of him because he had such every-day concerns.

"Secondly, even if you had been naked, everyone there has worked in operating rooms and has seen a ton of naked or partly-naked guys and women. It can't be helped with some surgeries. And there were only four of us. Me, Meredith and the two guys. But honestly, you had your underwear on."

"Okay," Stefan said, feeling embarrassed that he had even brought up the subject. He now changed the subject. "As the anesthesia person, you're the one who had your hands on my face?"

"Yes. And I monitored your I.V. with the vervain. I was a nervous wreck. I'd never seen or touched a vampire before," Kaitlyn admitted. "Look, I need to get to work. I never meant you any harm, Stefan. I just had to do what Meredith said."

"All right. Thanks for talking to me and explaining some things," Stefan said, mollified.

After Kaitlyn got into the car, she lowered the window and asked, "What are you going to do about the baby?"

"I don't know," Stefan said, shaking his head slightly. "I don't know."

Kaitlyn stared at him for a long moment and then raised the window. She started the car, backed up and drove off.

As Stefan and Elena walked back to his car, Elena looked at him and asked, "Did that really bother you? That you thought they had you naked?"

"I know that sounds stupid, but yeah, it bothered me. But not as much as what they did to me, of course."

Elena smiled to herself. Of all the things Stefan had endured, being naked in front of strangers had upset and embarrassed him. Of course, she would have been embarrassed, too. She wondered if there was ever a situation where Damon, so cocky and sure of his good looks, would feel embarrassed to find himself naked in front of people. She suspected that if he did feel embarrassment, he would just cover it with aplomb and a smirk.

Stefan suddenly took hold of her arm and turned her to face him. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked down at her dark eyes and her serious, lovely face. He loved her so much, but he couldn't say it. Not yet. Instead, he pulled her into a hug and was relieved that she put her arms around him instead of pushing him away.

"Thanks for coming with me this morning," he murmured into her hair. He inhaled deeply. He was glad she didn't smell of the same scent as Kaitlyn.

"You're welcome, Stefan." She stepped back a little. Her hand moved to gently rub his left side. "Do you ever feel it? Does it move yet?"

"Sometimes. A little fluttery feeling, but it may be my imagination," Stefan said with a little chuckle. "What am I going to do, Elena? It won't be much longer before I have to make a decision. Dr. Fell said she wouldn't remove it if it lives past three months. She'll really want me to go on."

"It's a hard decision for you. I know you must be thinking this may be your only chance to have a baby. To be a parent."

"If I knew we were going to be together, get married, I know I'd keep it," Stefan admitted. Then he thought he probably should have kept his mouth shut.

"Stefan, please don't put that burden on me," Elena said, her heart skipping a beat. "I'm not ready to consider such a big step yet. I love you. I have all along. You know that. But to get married because of a baby … That's the same as if _I _was the one who's pregnant. It's a huge decision. I can't tell you what to do."

Stefan stepped away from her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put the ball in your court. I know it's my decision to make. I wish I had trust in Dr. Fell. Maybe it would make this easier. Or not. Damn."

They went to the car, got in and Stefan drove to the school. He felt only slightly better for having talked to Kaitlyn. He felt quite a bit better because Elena had come with him; she had let him hug her and she had hugged him back. Most importantly, she had said she still loved him. None of that solved his problem, but it certainly improved his mood.

A/N The next chapter will deal with serious trouble coming to Stefan, Damon and their friends and a possible tragedy. Please review, which encourages me to keep going.


	8. Chapter 8

THE IMPLANT

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as Kaitlyn, are mine.

"No Tomorrow"

A/N Thank you to all of you who have been following this story. Love the reviews. Warning: this chapter has a sad ending, but it's not quite the end of the story.

It was a cloudy and dark evening when Stefan went after Finn Mikaelson behind the Mystic Grill. The plan had been for Damon to be there, but he hadn't shown up. Nevertheless, with the help of Elena and Matt, Stefan hoped to stake Finn and thus cause the deaths of all the Mikaelsons.

His plan didn't go quite as he expected. In the confrontation with Finn, Stefan was knocked down on the edge of the concrete stairs behind the Grill and he lost the stake. Finn would have used it against him if Elena and Matt had not come from the cellar door with a crossbow armed with a piece of the white oak. In moments, Finn fell dead and burst into flame. This was a relief for Stefan, but a horror for Sage, who witnessed the death of her creator and lover.

Almost immediately, a phone call came from Bonnie to Elena. She had been forced to do a spell that cancelled Esther's spell, tying the siblings together. Klaus and the others were _not_ dead. However, Klaus had Damon, and Rebekah was torturing him.

Another surprise that soon occurred was that when Sage moved to attack Stefan, she collapsed and died, too. The same thing then happened to her vampire follower. Stefan, Elena and Matt realized with a sickening feeling that they had just witnessed a chain of deaths. When Finn died, so did his _descendants!_ Did that indicate that if any of the Originals died, all their descendants would, too? If Bonnie had not done the "undo" spell, Stefan would be dead on this spot!

Having accomplished the killing of Finn, Stefan knew he now had to try to rescue Damon. Although Stefan had fallen on the steps and hurt the side of his abdomen, he had to believe that the baby was all right. Dr. Fell had said his good muscles would protect it. Still, he knew he had fallen hard and there was surely a bruise. He didn't mention this to Elena when he left her.

At Klaus' mansion, he saw the terrible state his brother was in as he hung from chains fitted with wolf traps clamped onto his wrists. Klaus and Rebekah were both there and Stefan knew he couldn't fight them. A bargain was struck and Stefan agreed to bring to Klaus all of the white oak stakes that they had made. He brought all except the one that Alaric had hidden away. Klaus finally accepted what he had brought and he released Damon to Stefan, who quickly carried him home through the dark woods, rather than put his bloodied body in the Porsche. Cutting through the woods was actually faster.

Stefan took him upstairs to Damon's room and into the bathroom, gently putting him on the tiled floor.

"I could've walked," Damon insisted weakly, as he lay there.

"Yeah, sure," Stefan said in a patient tone. "Let me see the extent of your injuries." He could see a lot of them because Damon's shirt was unbuttoned and open.

"I'll heal," Damon murmured. He felt distressingly weak.

"I know that. Hold still," Stefan said as he ripped the fabric of Damon's shirt sleeves. "Your wrists are a mess. Healing is going to hurt like hell."

"Already does," Damon assured him. He didn't move. He just lay there and let Stefan undress him.

Stefan saw that slices had been made in the arteries of Damon's upper arms, a serious attempt to speed blood loss. He was sure Damon had stopped his heart in order to reduce the bleeding. Still, slices and stab wounds marked his chest and abdomen.

Because of the upper body wounds, Damon's jeans and underwear were saturated with blood, and Stefan carefully peeled them off. The black loafers were full of blood as Stefan removed then too. He examined the wounds, most already closed, starting at Damon's shoulders and on down to his ankles, including his private parts, which were bruised, too, probably from vicious kicks.

"Bruised, stabbed and sliced, but no parts missing," Stefan said.

"Glad to hear it," Damon mumbled.

"You're going to be a mass of bruises for a couple of days," as he started medium-hot water running into the bathtub.

Damon just grunted.

Stefan moved to a position beside Damon's upper body and raised him enough so that he could lean against him. Stefan then slit his wrist, opening the artery and he pressed it to Damon's mouth. The older brother didn't immediately let down his fangs. Instead, he sucked strongly on the pulsing artery until the wound started to close. Then he used his fangs to slit it open again. After a bit, Stefan pulled his arm away.

"That's a start," he said. "You want to soak in the tub while I go get some blood bags?"

"Yeah," Damon said with a little nod. He lifted his left arm, noting that his ring was still there. He then studied the mangled wrist. In the past, he had seen animals caught in the jaws of traps and he knew the damage they did. A few animals were known to have chewed off their foot in order to free themselves, but most just died of the injury or starvation or the trapper killed them.

Stefan let the water continue to run into the tub as he helped Damon get in. The healing wounds stung nastily in the water and Damon gasped and moaned, but he settled down to soak. Stefan went for more blood and then returned. He opened a bag and held it to Damon's mouth. While his brother drank, Stefan told him in detail about the killing of Finn and the deaths of Sage and her vampire "son."

"I liked Sage," Damon said, shaking his head.

"We're in real danger," Stefan pointed out. "I had no idea a whole line of us could die if our Original creator dies."

"We didn't plan on that," Damon said, nodding. "That sucks."

"I'm going to take a shower, change clothes, and go get my car," Stefan said. "The rest of the blood bags are right here. Will you be all right?"

"Sure. Go ahead," Damon said, leaning back in the tub and closing his eyes. After Stefan was gone from the room, Damon cursed and moaned to himself quite a bit.

Stefan phoned Elena and gave her a report on Damon. When he undressed he noticed the bruise across his abdomen. Was the baby all right? He hoped so. He listened for the heartbeat, but the wind was whistling under the eaves, rain was hitting the windows and he couldn't hear the tiny sound. He also felt no movement, which was not too worrisome, because he only felt the baby move now and then, just a little flutter at his side. He figured that he would have Damon listen for the heartbeat later.

He showered and dressed. Going out into the night, he found that the rain was now minimal. He zipped through the drippy woods to Klaus' house, got into his car and drove home with the windshield wipers slowly going back and forth. He wished he could hear the little pittypat of the heart.

He went immediately to check on Damon. His brother was still in the tub, where he had run much of the red water out and added more hot water.

"How's it going?" the younger brother asked, seeing that Damon had washed his hair, face and neck. The rest of him was soaking.

"Peachy. That bitch stabbed me at least three times in the guts. I have a hell of a belly ache." Damon rubbed his abdomen gently.

"I know," Stefan said with sympathy. He well knew stabs like that let intestinal contents spill out into the abdomen where it caused chemical burning. It hurt, even though the holes in the intestines had healed. "Do you want some more of my blood?"

"No. I already drank four bags of blood. Help me get out of here, okay?"

Stefan held onto Damon's arm as he stood and stepped out of the tub. He was still a little shaky. Stefan grabbed two bath towels, handing one to his brother. Damon dried his front while Stefan did his back. Out in the bedroom, Damon sat carefully on the edge of the bed. He was sore all over. He managed to pull on the pair of briefs Stefan handed him.

"Damon, I fell pretty hard when I went up against Finn," Stefan said. He lifted his shirt and they looked at the bruise across his waist. "I can't hear the baby's heart. See if you can."

Looking at the bruise, Damon frowned and looked up at Stefan's concerned face. He reached out and drew his brother's body closer and leaned his head against his abdomen. He moved here and there, listening. Finally, he moved back and looked up. He shook his head.

"I don't hear it, Stef. But don't jump to conclusions. Maybe it got jarred loose and it attached itself somewhere else. We need to have the doctor examine you."

Stefan looked stricken. He had hoped everything was all right, but … The doctor had told him not to get into any fights, but that was exactly what he had done. He had killed his baby!

"It's dead," he murmured. "I went up against Finn and now my baby's dead." He stood there, feeling shock and fighting back tears. Adrenaline had been coursing through his body and now he started to shake.

"Stefan," Damon said, but he couldn't think of anything helpful to say. Stefan had spent the last three hours bargaining with Klaus, finding the stakes and getting him, Damon, free. And he'd spent time taking care of his injured brother, while all that time, he had known he maybe had lost the baby.

"I'm sorry, Stef," he said, and he stood up and put his arms around his brother's shoulders.

After a long moment of holding Stefan, Damon murmured, "Look, I'm going to call the doctor. She won't care what time it is, she'll want to see you. Hell, she's an obstetrician. They get called out all hours of the night for babies. Right?"

Stefan nodded and stood in a daze while Damon phoned Dr. Fell using the somewhat bloodied cell phone he had had in his jeans pocket.

"Doc, it's Damon. Look, we think Stefan's baby might be gone. He fell. He's got a bruise right where the baby was. I can't hear any heartbeat now. All right. In fifteen minutes."

"Damon, I'll go alone. You're still weak and hurting," Stefan managed to say, his hand gently rubbing the side of his abdomen.

"I'm going with you. No argument," Damon said. He winced as he walked over to his dresser and carefully opened a drawer. He looked at his partly-healed wrists and drew out a folded long-sleeved sweatshirt, struggling to put it on. Some of his fingers were not working right yet due to the slow healing of his wrists. In fact, Stefan couldn't bear watching him struggle and stepped up to help. He also helped him with a pair of jeans. Damon slid his feet into another pair of loafers.

In a few minutes they went out to the red Porsche. The rain had stopped. Stefan did the driving and they arrived safely at the doctor's office. To their surprise, Kaitlyn was there with Meredith. The shy girl nodded to them but said nothing, and then she barely looked at the two young men. Meredith unlocked the office and turned on the lights. Once again they trouped to the room down the hall. Stefan opened the shirt he had thrown on.

Meredith looked at the bruise and its location. She then looked at the young man's face. He suspected the worst, she could see. If Damon could not find a heartbeat, then there probably was none. She had to agree, but she didn't say it.

"Lie on the bed, Stefan, and let me see what I can see," she said calmly and she watched him do as she asked. She took a stethoscope and listened to his abdomen. He had stopped his heart, she realized. All she heard was his intestines gurgling. She then used the ultrasound equipment. All four of them watched the monitor screen. There was a blotch where they expected to find the tiny fetus.

"What is that?" Damon asked.

"Blood clot," Meredith said.

"Where the baby should be?"

"Yes. It's there in the clot."

"It's dead, isn't it?" Stefan said softly.

"Yes," the doctor said. "I'm sorry, Stefan."

Despite Stefan's best efforts, tears flooded his eyes and escaped down his face. He gritted his teeth and took a ragged breath.

"I knew it," he managed to say. Embarrassed and deeply saddened, he got up off the bed and turned away. Closing his shirt, he stepped toward the door. He wanted to escape from the room and the people watching him. Escape from their pitying looks.

Damon stepped in front of him, stopping him. "Easy, Stef," he said softly, and he put his hands on his brother's shoulders. Without thinking, Stefan pushed against Damon's front and the older brother cried out, pressing a hand to his abdomen.

Shocked at what he had just done, Stefan's concern switched quickly from his own pain to Damon's. "Damn it! I'm sorry, Damon."

"What's wrong?" Meredith asked, seeing the pain on Damon's face.

"I'm all right. Got beat up a little, that's all," Damon said, trying to slow his rapid breathing.

"Lift your shirt," Meredith said. She was used to giving orders.

"I'm all right! We vampires heal fast, remember?" he snapped.

"Lift your shirt, _please_," Meredith said, not giving up.

Glaring at her, Damon lifted the bottom of his sweatshirt. Most of his front was badly bruised. Although the actual wounds had closed, red marks still showed where the stabs and slices had been.

"My God!" Kaitlyn murmured, putting a hand to her mouth.

"That's not a case of being beaten up," Meredith said, a hard look coming to her face. "You look like you've been tortured!"

"Okay. Tortured. It'll be all right," Damon muttered, letting the shirt down.

"Can I do anything?" Meredith asked. What did you do for vampires in pain?

"No. What can you do for _Stefan_?"

"We don't need to do anything right now. I need to remove the reservoirs, but it has to be done surgically. Under sterile conditions."

"No, it doesn't," Damon said. "Give him a dose of vervain, enough to put him out for a little while and we can get them out right now."

"I can't do that under these conditions!" Meredith stated, waving her hand to indicate the small room, while Kaitlyn watched, wide-eyed.

"Stefan won't get infected. He won't bleed to death. Believe me, it can be done right here and now," Damon insisted firmly. It crossed his mind that Dr. Fell had never been on a battlefield, hadn't seen what he had seen during the Civil War or in other desperate times.

"Look," the doctor said. "I've got a big motor home rigged with a small operating room. There are a few instruments there and a couple of vervain syringes."

"That's what you used to put the embryo into him," Damon said, nodding. "We thought the tracks were from a bus."

Meredith nodded. "I'll take you there now, if you are insisting."

"I am. Stefan?" Damon asked of his brother, who had let the argument flow around him.

"Yeah. It's over. The baby's dead. I want all that stuff out of me," Stefan said firmly. He felt uncommonly hollow inside. Something he had come to treasure was dead and gone. He had shut off his emotions so he didn't feel the grief.

They drove in two cars to the storage place where the big RV was parked. There was a place nearby where the unit could be plugged in for power so that they didn't have to use the generator. In a short while, they were all inside and things looked ready.

To Kaitlyn, Stefan said, "You sat there and watched over me?"

"Yes. I didn't have much to do except watch the I.V."

"And touch my face."

"And touch your face. As an anesthesia person, that's my domain. Anesthesia machine, head, heart, lungs, I.V." She didn't point out that there was no anesthesia machine there.

"Well, it looks like you get to do that again. I put my life in your hands, Kaitlyn. Take care of me," Stefan said, taking off his shirt. "Do I need to take off my pants?"

"No," Meredith said. "When you get on the table, just push then down a little. We'll try not to let blood run down there."

"He won't bleed a lot once he's out and his heart stops," Damon said.

With a little trepidation, Stefan lay down on the firm operating table and pushed his jeans down a couple of inches. At least his private parts were still covered. He put his arms out on the armboards that Kaitlyn attached to the table and he watched her prepare a bag of I.V. fluids and add a certain amount of vervain. Within a minute she had started the fluid running into his arm. It stung like fire as it spread through his body. He gasped and moaned softly. He couldn't keep from squirming and he realized someone had put a restraining strap across his knees. In addition, Damon was standing next to him, a hand on his chest. Then, in moments, his world faded away.

Kaitlyn had felt a long moment of alarm. She hadn't realized that the intravenous vervain would cause him pain. Before she could think of anything to do to help Stefan, he relaxed and lost consciousness. In fact, he slipped into that state where there was no heartbeat or respirations. If she hadn't seen him like that before, she would have thought that she had really killed him.

Damon had kept a hand on Stefan's chest because he knew the vervain would hurt and that his brother would squirm on the narrow operating table. He let go once Stefan was still, and he concentrated on what Meredith was saying. She was showing him a tray of instruments and explaining what she would do and what she wanted him to do that would help her during the procedure. They would wear surgical gowns and gloves. Damon was glad she didn't insist he pull up his sleeves. He didn't want to explain about the nasty marks on his wrists.

"I think he's ready," Kaitlyn said. She had touched his eyelashes and there had been no blink. She opened his mouth and it stayed open. She closed it. She felt she could relax now.

Meredith reached over with an instrument and pinched Stefan's abdominal skin. He didn't move. She proceeded to wash his abdomen with an antiseptic, to put sterile drapes on him and then she and Damon got to work.

It was a bit hard for Damon, not because his brother's abdomen was opened by a small incision, but because he was weak. The healing process was draining his energy. He wished he had brought a couple of bags of blood. He really wanted to bite either of the women and suck some blood. He couldn't even bite Stefan because he was now vervained.

Half way through the procedure, while hunting for the last two reservoirs, he spoke up.

"Doc, I gotta tell you I feel really weak from my injuries. It would revive me a lot if one of you ladies could give me a couple of good swallows of blood."

"We can't, Damon," Meredith said. "We both use vervain."

"I forgot that," Damon admitted. "Then I better sit down. Just for a few minutes. I should have bitten Stefan before you shot him with the vervain."

"I haven't taken any vervain in three days," Kaitlyn admitted, looking sheepish.

"Kaitlyn!" Meredith admonished, scowling both because Kaitlyn had been lax on taking her medication and also because she was offering herself to the vampire.

"You won't kill me?" The young woman asked Damon. She was afraid, but she knew vampires often bit people and did no real harm. Or so she had been told. She felt she owed the brothers something for what she had helped do to Stefan.

"I promise," Damon said. Bless you, sweetie, he thought. "My face will change. Don't be afraid. All right?" Since she wasn't on vervain, he let his voice calm her.

"All right," Kaitlyn said, swallowing hard, although she somehow felt less fearful. She kept a hand on Stefan's cheek and jaw as if they were a safety anchor. She swallowed again when she saw his face and eyes change and the fangs showed, but again, she was wary rather than afraid. He moved close to her, his strong hand going behind her neck. She closed her eyes as his face came to the side of her neck, and suddenly she felt the pressure and sting of the fangs penetrating. Right to her jugular or carotid! She gave a tiny cry. She felt him suck. She also felt some sort of weird pleasure as if she were getting feedback from _his _pleasure! It was a big surprise. A pleasant surprise. No wonder some women stayed with a vampire despite being bitten!

He stopped suddenly and she felt him lick her skin. Then he let go of her and moved back. She opened her eyes and stared into his eyes that were again blue, mesmerizing somehow. He's so handsome! Good grief! she thought. I almost feel like we just had sex!

"Kaitlyn! Mind your patient. He's getting light!" Meredith ordered, feeling a tightening of Stefan's abdominal muscles.

Kaitlyn snapped out of her trance and reached for a syringe of vervain and the I.V. control. She hurried a larger dose of vervain into Stefan. She didn't dare look at Damon again.

He moved to put on new latex gloves, since he had removed his bloody ones before touching Kaitlyn.

"You're all right now?" Meredith asked him, frowning. She had seen the confused look on her young cousin's face and she knew he had influenced her in some way.

"Yes. I lost a lot of blood earlier this evening. Stefan gave me some of his and I had bags of blood, but I'm still low. And the pain and healing burns up my energy. I'm with you now. Where were we?"

It didn't take long to finish removing the reservoirs. In addition, the blood clot and the little fetus were removed. Meredith showed it to Damon. Although he had seen very small babies following a miscarriage, he had never seen one this tiny. He wasn't sure what he felt about it. He hadn't been carrying it, but he was concerned about how Stefan would feel.

"Do you think he will want to see it?" she asked.

"Yes," Damon said, nodding slightly.

He and Meredith pressed the edges of the wound together and they adhered strongly. Meredith washed Stefan's skin clean and resisted putting on a bandage.

"Wake him up, Kaitlyn," she said. She put the fetus in a small glass jar and added alcohol to it as a preservative.

Kaitlyn stopped the I.V. and removed the needle from Stefan's arm. She then sat in her chair with her hands on his cheeks and jaw. It was habit with her as she waited for him to start breathing. Meredith gathered up the instruments and stuff used for the operation, in preparation of taking them with her. Damon leaned against the wall, his thoughts concerned with how Stefan would deal with this outcome.

It was ten minutes before Stefan finally took a deep breath. He jerked suddenly as his eyes flew open and he uttered a curse. An expression of confusion and fear was on his face. His hands moved weakly to his abdomen.

Damon stepped close quickly, put a hand firmly on Stefan's chest and said, "Hold still, Stefan. You're all right. Hold still. You hear me?"

Stefan nodded, focusing his eyes on Damon. Then he looked up at Kaitlyn and then over at Meredith and he calmed down a little.

"It's out?" he asked, his left hand on his side.

"It's all over," Damon said, his hand still resting on Stefan's chest. He watched his brother struggle with emotions, finally putting on a calm, but sad, face. In fact, Stefan closed his eyes while they waited for more of the vervain to wear off.

In a couple of minutes Stefan was able to sit up. Damon helped him put on his shirt and button the buttons. Stefan then stood up, testing his legs. He was a little shaky and he held onto Damon's shoulder.

Meredith asked if he wanted to see the fetus and he nodded. She showed the tiny baby in its jar to both Stefan and Kaitlyn. She noticed that the young man's face was expressionless, almost stony.

"It's a boy?"

"Yes. I'm sorry, Stefan."

"I want to bury him," Stefan said softly, but firmly, and Meredith nodded. She would rather have examined it like the scientist that she was, but she didn't deny him the opportunity to get closure.

Kaitlyn, putting away the few supplies that she had used, spoke up after a couple of minutes. "Stefan, can I ask you something?"

"I guess. What?"

"How old were you when you became a vampire?"

"I had just turned seventeen. Why?"

"I just wondered, that's all." A teenager, she thought. She glanced at Damon, meeting his eyes questioningly.

"Twenty four," he said.

For the first time, Stefan noticed the two puncture marks on her neck. He reached out and touched them, while Kaitlyn cringed warily. He looked at Damon.

"I was getting weak, needed a boost. Kaitlyn agreed to let me, since she hadn't used any vervain for several days," Damon said. "You shouldn't skip days, Kaitlyn. You never know when some vampire might fancy your neck."

Kaitlyn had to look away. He had that mesmerizing look in his eyes and it alarmed her in some strange way, while at the same time, she felt drawn to him. She felt very vulnerable. She definitely needed that vervain.

"Are you all right now?" Stefan asked Damon, noticing that he still looked almost has pale as he had earlier.

"I am totally wiped out, little brother," Damon said, confirming Stefan's assessment. "Let's go home. Gimme the keys."

"I can drive."

"No, you can't. You're still vervained. At the moment, I have better reflexes than you do, so hand over the keys."

Stefan fished them out of his pocket and handed them over.

Stefan took the little jar that Meredith handed him and he put it in his pocket. He and Damon left the motor home and walked to the car, where Damon got behind the wheel. On the drive home, they didn't discuss whether or not Meredith should be punished for what she had done to Stefan. They didn't discuss how Stefan felt about the loss of the baby. They didn't even discuss the business concerning Finn's death or Rebekah's treatment of Damon. In fact, they rode in silence. At home, they walked into the study and each had a large drink of whiskey.

"Talk to me," Damon said.

"No. Not now."

"You need to talk about it, Stefan. I know you got really attached to the baby. You wanted it. Admit it."

Stefan couldn't answer for a beat. "Not now. I'm going to bed. We'll talk tomorrow."

Damon didn't push him anymore. He watched him walk toward the hall. A couple of minutes after Stefan went upstairs, Damon gulped the last of his drink and went up to his own room. Leaving a light on, he stretched out fully clothed on his bed. He closed the door on his emotions and forced himself to fall into the sleep of the dead. His body needed the time to repair the damage. Tomorrow would be another day. Tomorrow they would deal with the aftermath of what had happened today.

Up in his room, Stefan sat on his bed and removed the jar from his pocket. Lying down on his bed, he stared at the tiny baby. He turned onto his side, clutched the jar to his chest and finally opened the door to his emotions, weeping for the lost little one. Tomorrow would never come for his little boy.

A/N I know it's sad that Stefan lost the baby, but when he was knocked down trying to kill Finn, the time seemed right. I was going to end the story here, but I have an idea for one more chapter. Feel free to comment.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me.

A/N Sorry about the delay with this chapter. I was working on other stories. Despite the death of the baby, Stefan has things he must do, decisions to make. Some of them surround the baby. Warning: this chapter also has a sad ending.

Damon rose early, before daylight, moving carefully, testing the healing of his body. There was quite a bit of soreness still in his abdomen and his wrists, but he could tell most of the healing was complete. He headed for the shower, where he let hot water pour down on him for a while. It felt good and loosened any stiffness.

After he dressed, he went up the stairs to the top floor. There was no light coming from under the door to Stefan's room. He was either still asleep or gone from the room. Quietly, Damon opened the door and looked inside. He could certainly see well enough in the dark room, especially since a streetlight down the block cast some illumination in through one of the windows.

Stefan was asleep on his side, a common sleeping position for him. The little bottle with the tiny baby in it was resting in one of his hands. Damon tapped lightly on the door frame and Stefan's eyelids moved slightly. He didn't otherwise move. Damon knew he was listening. The first thing vampires often did when waking was listen, and then look around. Sure enough, Stefan's eyes opened and he raised his head slightly so he could see Damon.

"What?" he murmured, wondering if something was wrong.

"Nothing. I was just checking up on you. Did you get enough rest?"

"I guess," Stefan said. He looked at the jar, sighed and then reached over to put it on the bedside table. Rolling onto his back, he stretched and then scratched where the baby had once given him tiny kicks. He was still in his clothes from the night before, having not bothered to undress.

"Are you ready to talk about last night?" Damon asked, coming further into the room.

"There's not much to say, is there?" Stefan said without emotion. "I got into a fight that accomplished nothing, except I killed my baby."

"The fight accomplished a couple of things and you didn't kill the baby. Finn did."

"What the hell did I accomplish?" Stefan muttered, barely interested. He knew he had set up the circumstances that had ended the baby's life.

"You got rid of one of the Originals. You found out that we can't kill any more of them until we find out who we are descended from. You also saved my life. Again. A person would think you loved your despicable brother."

Stefan gave a snort. "He's my brother."

"Your brother is once again grateful. He wishes he could have been at the Grill last night like he was supposed to be. Maybe you wouldn't have been knocked down. Maybe his potential little nephew would still be alive."

"Don't go taking the blame, Damon. I did it all by myself. I took a chance and I lost."

"And what now?"

"I don't know yet. Should I give him a name? Where should I bury him?" Stefan said, looking at Damon with a serious expression.

"Give it some thought. Take your time. Look, I'm going to make some breakfast. If I make enough, will you eat?"

"Yeah. I guess. I need to take a shower first."

The conversation at breakfast centered for a while on the problem of Originals and who was descended from whom. A conclusion was reached that someone needed to go to Denver to talk to Jeremy, who could speak to vampire ghosts. They needed to discuss this with Elena.

"I need to talk to Elena and tell her I lost the baby. She doesn't know yet. Or did you phone her?"

"No, I haven't."

Stefan sipped his coffee in thoughtful silence, trying to decide what he should say to Elena.

She was eating breakfast when he rang her doorbell. She was alone these days because Jeremy was in Denver and Alaric was at his loft, where Meredith sometimes spent time. Elena let Stefan into the house and they went to the kitchen.

"How is Damon this morning?" she asked as she sat down at the table. Stefan helped himself to a glass of orange juice and sat too. He had let her know that he had rescued Damon from the clutches of the two Originals.

"He's good. Healed, but bruised," he said. "Look, I have to tell you something else that happened last night. What we did after Damon was somewhat recovered."

He briefly told her about going to Dr. Fell's office and then having the surgery. He tried not to be emotional, but when Elena put her arms around him and told him she was so sorry he had lost the baby, tears came to his eyes and spilled over. That brought tears to her eyes, too, and they stood there holding onto each other. It felt very good to them, despite the sadness and their conflicting emotions.

He also brought up the fact that Jeremy might help them find out something about their background. There was some concern about Jeremy's safety, because Klaus had revealed that he knew where Jeremy was and that he had his brother Kol keeping an eye on him.

While Elena thought she and Stefan should go to Denver, or she, Stefan and Damon, Stefan insisted that she go with Damon. He told her she needed to spend time with Damon so that she could figure out what her feelings for him were. All three of them knew Elena was confused about her feelings for each brother.

While Damon and Elena were in Denver, Alaric agreed to reside in a cell under the Salvatore house, hoping that his alter ego, the killer, would emerge and reveal where he had hidden the last of the white oak stakes. If worse came to worse, it was Stefan's job to get the information, even if he had to beat it out of his friend. He didn't want to do it, but he and Ric both knew he might have to.

In the meantime, he had not forgotten the lost baby. He told Ric about it and the man was sympathetic. If Ric thought it was for the best, he didn't say it.

Now, as Stefan kept the man company down in the cellar cell (with the door open), he said, "I don't know if I should name the baby."

Ric wasn't surprised that the subject of the baby kept coming up at odd moments during their conversation. "Do you want to?"

Stefan shrugged. "I wasn't really related to him. But I developed feelings for him the longer I carried him."

"That's understandable. Actually, predictable." Alaric knew how quickly a person could become attached to an unborn baby. When they were married, Isobel had

become pregnant, which was a surprise. She then had a miscarriage a month later, but already Ric had felt fatherly.

"Hospitals sometimes call new babies Baby Boy or Baby Girl until the parents pick a name. Your little one could be Baby Boy Salvatore."

"That's an idea," Stefan said, nodding. "BB Salvatore. That would work."

"It would," Ric agreed. "Now, have you decided where you're going to bury him?"

Stefan shook his head. "I was wondering if Elena would let me put him in the Gilbert plot. Unmarked, but with a good family. I guess that sounds stupid."

"No, it doesn't. What about the Salvatore vault? Isn't it back in the woods near your old house ruins?"

"My father is buried there. I don't want the baby there." Stefan hadn't had the bad relationship with his father that Damon had had, but he still harbored ill feelings since Giuseppe had turned on his sons in the end.

"You have time to decide. When Elena gets back, ask her about the Gilbert plot," Ric said.

The two men talked, often about little things, sometimes about childhood things. Ric could relate easily to what Stefan did as a child, because the young man had been human then. The big differences were in the social norms of those days and the fact that it was before the household use of electricity and other things taken for granted these days.

Stefan phoned Klaus and told him about the loss of the baby. It was none of Klaus' business, but he knew Stefan was pregnant and he was interested. The Original could have been callous about the loss, but he wasn't. In fact, he expressed sympathy. He understood that Stefan had become quite attached to the fetus, just as he thought he would.

Despite the mayhem that followed the emergence of Ric's alter ego and the return of Damon and Elena, Stefan did talk to Elena about his idea for a burial site. She was agreeable to it. So, one evening before the dark of night settled in, Stefan, Damon and Elena gathered for the burial. Not wanting to use the jar, Stefan had wrapped the tiny infant in a blue silk handkerchief and laid it in a small, pretty cardboard box. He had carefully written "BB Salvatore" on the box lid.

Kneeling in the grass, he placed it in the little hole dug against the side of the Gilbert headstone, just feet away from where Jenna was buried. He covered the little box with dirt and gently patted it down. He then laid a small bunch of baby's breath flowers, which he had bought from a florist, on the little mound of dirt.

It was Elena who said a few appropriate words over the grave. She and Damon then walked away a bit, leaving Stefan on his knees at the tiny grave. A couple of tears slowly ran down his face. Something that had become very special for him had come to an end.

"Goodbye, little BB," he whispered.

A/N I hope you all liked this story of the Implant. I really enjoyed writing it. I know some folks wanted Stefan to become a parent, but it was not to be. Any comments are appreciated.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A/N Comments by a recent reviewer has made me decide to add this chapter. I ended the last chapter without dealing with the fact that neither Meredith nor Kaitlyn were in any way punished for doing what they had done to Stefan without his knowledge or permission.

I might point out that Meredith stole blood from Damon and, when he found out, he didn't do anything to her. Neither Damon nor Stefan did anything to Meredith even when they suspected she was a killer or when she shot Ric. Nor did they go after Meredith when they suspected she might be the one who knifed Ric. For a couple of vampires, they showed great restraint.

They did scare Kaitlyn rather badly a couple of times, though.

"Aftermath"

It was a cold afternoon when Stefan parked his Porsche beside the cemetery and walked slowly past the many grave stones. Despite the fact that winter had come, there were some real flowers in vases at some of the graves. Others had artificial blooms. Still, the majority had no flowers at all. He wondered if it was because no one came to the graves or because the families didn't feel like putting flowers there. Or maybe there was no family left.

In his hand he carried a small bunch of baby's breath flowers. He had been surprised that the florist had them this time of year, but of course, florists obtained flowers grown elsewhere.

He made his way to the area where the Gilbert plot was located. Dry leaves littered the ground and crunched under his boots. There was still evidence of the somewhat recent graves of Jenna and John. Neither grave had its own headstone. However, he saw that Elena had had their names added to the large headstone that marked the resting place of the beloved man and woman who had raised Elena and who were the true parents of Jeremy.

There was no inscribed mention of the tiny boy who rested here, too. Stefan knelt down and brushed away the leaves from the spot against the side of the headstone. Because of the time of year, no grass had grown there, and the soil had settled so that there was no little mound. He didn't need to see that because he knew exactly where he had put the little box. Carefully, he laid the tiny white flowers on the spot.

This was the third time he had come since the burying. His feelings were mixed. What had happened was over. He was good at putting feeling aside, since he had been doing it for a long time, locking them away if they were painful. But he really didn't want to forget the little being who had shared his body for a short time, who had tickled his side from the inside and who had sparked ideas of future parenthood.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the crunch of footsteps on dry leaves. He looked up and saw that it was Meredith Fell. He got to his feet and faced her. He felt a spark of resentment. Did he want her here? This was his private time and his private spot.

And yet there was no one else but Meredith who had known little BB as well as Stefan himself had. Sure, Damon had been to the examinations and the removal, but it was Meredith who had created the embryo and implanted it. Meredith, who should not have done it.

She came to a spot near him and looked down at the flowers beside the grave marker. He could tell when it dawned on her what it meant. Her eyes came up to meet his, a shadow of sadness in them that matched his own.

"I wondered what you did with … him," she said quietly. She shoved her hands deeper into her coat pockets.

"Now you know. What are you doing here?" Stefan asked, his tone reflecting a bit of his resentment. Standing here at the grave he also felt uncomfortable, a little embarrassed. His softer, human side was showing.

"I was visiting Ric's grave. I brought flowers, too," she said. "I miss him. What was done to him was wrong." She shook her head and looked up at the cloudy sky. It was a gloomy day.

"I know the feeling, as you can well imagine," Stefan muttered. Did this woman care that she had violated his body?

Meredith looked at him. "You mean what I did to you? You're right. It was wrong. I let my scientific curiosity and enthusiasm get the best of me. I had an idea and I wanted to know if I was right. I had to know."

"So you just used me for your experiment. Like some lab rat."

"At the time, I didn't know you. I knew what you were, and that's all that mattered. I saw you as a creature and not as a person. I was so wrong, Stefan. You are a person and I never should have treated you like I initially did."

"You admit that now, but it doesn't change the fact that your little experiment was working and you were over the moon, as they say, about that," Stefan said, his tone mildly accusing. He found that he was unable to work up real anger, however.

"Yes. It was working. I know you are pissed that I did that, but if it had worked, you would have had a child, something you can't otherwise have. I know you came to care about it. I know it hurt you to lose the baby, Stefan."

"You're right about that, but the real issue was that I was violated. You could lose your medical license for doing that if I found some way to report it without it pointing to myself."

"True. But neither you nor Damon has done anything to make that happen. Why? Did you forgive me my transgressions?" Her tone was curious, not confrontational.

Stefan just looked at her. He knew the answer was a complicated one. When he and Damon had realized the truth, they could have retaliated. They could have hurt her or even killed her. They hadn't.

"For one thing, I had come to rely on you for monitoring the baby," Stefan said. "Yes, I was angry when I realized you were the one. I felt deceived and humiliated. But other things were going on and you seemed to be in the middle of it. You and Alaric. He was a good friend of ours, mine and Damon's."

Meredith nodded that she was aware of that.

"Ric really fell for you," he continued. "That was a factor in how we felt about you. How we reacted toward you. We were worried about him. When we thought you were out to kill him, your life was really in danger from us. I suppose you didn't know that."

"No. I really didn't. I was concentrating on the fact that Ric himself was a danger to me and he didn't know it. I wanted to help him somehow."

"Why Damon didn't just up and kill you, I'm not sure. But Ric was his best friend and you were important to Ric. That protected you, I guess."

"I knew you vampires were killers. I knew that, Stefan. And yet, I don't think I really thought you or Damon would kill me. Perhaps I was naïve to think that."

"It wasn't very smart of you, but it obviously worked out for you anyway."

"I just wish things had worked out for Ric. In the end, we all failed him. He's dead."

"We can blame Esther Mikaelson for that," Stefan said with a bitter grunt.

"What a monster she was," Meredith agreed, her tone also bitter. "I just hope Ric has found peace."

Stefan looked at her sad face. Here they stood, two people saddened by a loss. In a way, he was not in a position to accuse her of wrong-doing. He himself was guilty of so much death that he had to shut that away so that the guilt and shame of it didn't destroy him.

Meredith Fell, for the most part, was a doctor who was trying to help women have babies. She was succeeding. That she had gone astray and experimented on a vampire was a different matter. In the end nothing bad had come of it. It wasn't her fault that the baby had died.

"I don't hate you for what you did," he finally said. "I'm not angry about it any more. We both suffered losses. I have greater worries right now. Let's just let all that be in the past. All right?"

"Yes," the woman said. The idea was fine with her. Then, curious, she asked, "How is Elena?"

"Let's not go there, Doctor," Stefan said firmly. That Elena was now a vampire was partly Meredith's fault and partly Stefan's. He didn't want to deal with that tangled web right now.

Meredith nodded. She said nothing more. In fact, she and Stefan walked in silence to their cars, got in and drove away. Life in Mystic Falls was frustratingly complicated and dangerous and it would continue to be so.

A/N I hope this epilogue makes a better ending for the story than my previous ending. And to the person who was annoyed with that previous ending, thank you for reviewing and telling me what you liked and what you found disappointing about the story. Even a negative comment can help a writer do better.


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